Discovered Intentions
by Sheori
Summary: What if Bella hadn't managed to get away from Alice and Jasper in Twilight? How would the fight against James, and Edward's struggle to keep Bella safe continue? My first fic, rated T just in case. Please R & R.
1. Caught

**Author's Note. I've wanted to write my own fic for years, but I've never had any confidence in my writing ability. One day I decided to start writing on this idea, and before I knew it I was publishing it here. Please give me some reviews, so I know if there's anything I need to change. It's exciting for me to finally have a story posted.**

**Discovered Intentions**

**Disclaimer- I do not own Twilight, or any of the characters. **

**Words in italics are direct quotes from the book**

**Ch 1 Caught**

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_The minutes passed, and Edward's arrival grew closer. It was amazing how every cell in my body knew he was coming, to long for his coming. That made it very hard. I found myself trying to think of excuses to stay, to see him first, and then make my escape. But I knew that was impossible if I had any chance to get away._

_Several times. Alice offered to get breakfast with me. Later I told her, not yet. _

_I stared at the arrival board, watching as flight after flight arrived on time. The flight from Seattle crept closer to the top of the board. _

_And then when I had only thirty minutes to make my escape, the numbers changed. His plane was ten minutes early. I had no more time. _

_"I think I'll eat now," I said quickly. _

_Alice stood, "I'll come with you."_

_"Do you mind if Jasper comes instead?" I asked. "I'm feeling a little. . . ," I didn't finish the sentence. My eyes were wild enough to convey what I didn't say. _

_Jasper stood up. Alice's eyes were confused, but- I saw to my relief- not suspicious. She must be attributing the change to her vision to some maneuver of the trackor's rather than a betrayal by me. _

_Jasper walked silently beside me, his hand on the small of my back, as if he were guiding me. I pretended a lack of interest in the first few diner cafes, my head scanning for what I really wanted. And there it was, around the corner, out of Alice's sharp sight: the level three ladies room._

_"Do you mind?" I asked Jasper as we passed. "I'll just be a moment."_

_"I'll be right here," he said._

_As soon as the door shut behind me, I was running. I remembered the time I had gotten lost from this bathroom, because it had two exits. _

_Outside the doors it was only a short sprint to the elevators, and if Jasper stayed where he said he would, I'd never be in his line of sight. I didn't look behind me as I ran, this was my only chance, and even if he saw me, I had to keep going. People stared, but I ignored them. Around the corner the elevators were waiting, and I dashed forward, throwing my hand between the closing doors of a full elevator headed down. I squeezed in beside the irritated passengers, and checked to make sure that the button for level one had been pushed. It was already lit, and the doors closed. _

_As soon as the door opened, I was off again, to the sound of annoyed murmurs behind me. I slowed myself as I passed the security guards by the luggage carousels, only to break into a run again as the exit doors came into view. I had no way of knowing if Jasper was looking for me yet. I would only have seconds if he was following my scent. I jumped out the automatic doors, nearly smacking into the glass when they opened too slowly. _

_Along the crowded curb there wasn't a cab in sight. _

"Wait!" A shuttle to Hyatt was just closing it's doors a few feet behind me. The driver didn't seem to hear or notice me as the doors finished closing. He drove off and my heart began to sink. I spun around again to see if there was any other way to get away from here, But then I saw something that almost made my heart stop. Alice!

She was just coming out the door, obviously doing her best to move at a human speed. But even though she was moving at human speed, she was running fast. I ran out of the shade the building was creating, and I knew she at least wouldn't be able to come over to me, without exposing her sparkling skin. She stopped at the edge of the shade, glaring at me furiously. Just seconds later, I noticed Jasper come out and join her. I saw her quickly and quietly give him some instructions, and he was gone again.

I looked frantically for any chance of further escape, while still keeping an eye on Alice to make sure nothing changed. I saw a bus stopped about forty feet away, and when I looked to check on Alice, I saw Jasper return with an over sized hoody. I gasped, realizing the hoody could cover most of Alice's skin, and with the hood up, her face would be shaded as well. I bolted towards the bus, even though escape seemed impossible now, I still had to try to save my mother.

I ran, trying to fight the urge to look back. But before I was even half way to the bus, I felt her hand close over my wrist, making my hope to get to the bus impossible. I knew that had been my only chance, my mother would be dead soon. I let my legs collapse underneath me, and began to sob quietly. I tried to keep myself as composed as I possibly could still, I wanted to be able to think. Alice caught me and held me up, not letting me fall to the hard ground. I noticed she was still careful to keep the hood on, and her hands in the sleeves.

People were staring, but neither of us cared, she just let my cry, pulling me with her to get back inside. I felt devastated, and I knew Alice would not let me out of her sight now. I resisted her slightly, even though I knew I had no strength to get away from her. As hopeless as it was, I was not able to let myself give up. As soon as we were in the shade again Alice let the hood fall off her head. She kept pulling me back inside to the bench we were sitting at earlier. Jasper was there waiting for us. We both sat, and she held onto me. I tried to stop crying, and took deep breaths, I wanted to be able to talk. I knew there was no chance of me leaving now, but I had to try something. Maybe if I begged. . . .

"Alice, he has my mother." My words were almost a whisper and barely coherent, but I knew Alice would be able to understand me. "He said if I went to the ballet studio alone he wouldn't harm her. Please, please understand, I have to- "

"No." Alice's words were gentle, mixed with a touch of anger I could tell she was trying to repress. "You'll only get yourself killed. Bella listen to me, your mother is fine. I can see her still in Florida. Her plans haven't changed, she still is coming back within a week, but hopefully when you talk to her you can convince her to change her mind. This is a trap he has set for you, we can't let you just walk into it."

Her words didn't change my frantic desire to get away. I knew how good all the Cullens were at lying, and I couldn't be sure if Alice was speaking the truth, or just saying this so I wouldn't worry about my mother and try to escape from them again. I didn't quite believe her still, and I was still so frantic from trying to run earlier that it was very hard to calm down anyway. I was known for not giving up, and with my mother possibly in danger, this wasn't a time I was planning to go against my reputation.

I was just about to argue with Alice, but before I could even open my mouth Jasper reached out beside me and touched my arm. Imediately I started to fall into an unwanted sleep. I tried to jump up like I had last time, so I could get away from his touch and be able to stay awake and think, but Alice was still holding me down. My head was resting on her shoulder. I didn't want to fall asleep, I knew Edward would arrive any second now. It was all I could do to hold onto the shred of consiousness I still had, with Jasper's hand still on me, and Alice holding me against her shoulder.


	2. Reunion

**Disclaimer- I do not own Twilight**

**Chapter 2. Reunion**

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I continued to fight sleep with every ounce of will power I had. I kept listening to whatever I could, thinking, and using my mind. Jasper was quietly questioning Alice, so I focused my mind on their conversation. There voices sounded like I was hearing them at a distance from underwater.

"I was contemplating the change in my vision, and I wondered maybe, with the way Bella was acting, it was _her_ mind that changed. Then I very faintly saw a vision of her running . . . and it looked like she was running out of the mall," Alice was explaining to Jasper. "I started to worry that she might be trying to get away from us. I realized that was what she was doing and I had to stop her, as soon as I thought this, I saw myself outside trying to catch her."

"I'm so glad you have your visions,"Jasper told her greatfully. "Edward was going to be so furious with us, and your vision of Jame's attacking her would have probably come true. I'm glad we avoided all that."

"Trust me, so am I," she agreed grimly. I wondered how she saw Edward in her visions if I had left. Then I wondered what she saw James doing to Renee or me. There was a long pause, they were probably both thinking. I tried to listen to something else to keep my mind occupied. There were the people around us, but I couldn't pick out any specific words or conversations. Everything was becoming very quiet and sounded fuzzy. As the time went by I knew I was about to loose all consciousness. Suddenly Alice spoke again, giving me back what little bit of my mind I had before. "Oh, good, the plane's going to land in three minutes," she said happily. This woke me up a bit, it meant Edward would be here soon.

"So Renee is definitely still safe in Florida?" Jasper asked. As hard as the fight against total sleep was, I had to stay awake long enough to hear Alice's answer. She wouldn't lie to Jasper when she thought I was asleep. I decided whatever she said now was what I was going to believe.

"Yes, I can see she is going to hear Bella's message and return the call. I just can't see when that's going to happen, I think she keeps changing her mind about listening to her phone messages," Alice answered thoughtfully. "Maybe it's something she's been planning to do, but keeps forgetting." That was a good possibility. Renee was known to be scatter brained, and if she was enjoying her time with Phil, I figured what Alice said was exactly why I had not received a return phone call yet.

After hearing this, I stopped listening to the conversation. I was ready to stop fighting the sleep, now that I could stop worrying. I could feel the relief wash through me, and I drifted rapidly into unbroken sleep. But I must have only slept a couple minutes when I woke up. I could feel that Jasper had just removed his hand, but Alice was still holding me. I opened my eyes and gasped in excitement. Just yards away was Edward. He was walking very quickly to us. His perfect face looked worried, angry, and relieved at the same time. I guessed he was reading Alice's mind about my attempt to escape.

Even though he would be right in front of me in seconds, I wanted to run and meet him. I tried to push myself up, but Alice still held me.

"Alice," I whined, "Can't I get up? I want to see him." She was being over cautious, trying to make sure I wasn't going to run away, or try to run, again. But, by the time I finished saying this, he was already standing in front of me.

Alice finally let go of me as Edward wrapped his arms around me and held me. He held me for a long time, and I could have stayed in his arms forever. I didn't even notice as Carlisle and Emmett joined us.

I heard Alice explaining what I had tried to do, and how James had tried to trick me. But I forgot they were even there as I felt Edward's cold hard lips on mine. Of course Edward didn't need to listen to Alice, he already knew everything that happened before I had even seen him.

"I came close to not seeing you here, didn't I?" he whispered gently in my ear. "Don't ever think of doing something like that again," he spoke with some force in his words this time. I didn't get a chance to respond because his lips gently pushed into mine again. I was so relieved to be with Edward again. I felt like I had been away from him for an eternity, and I wanted nothing more than for this to never end. But of course Emmett had to interrupt.

"So, have you calmed down now?" he teased with a grin.

I was frustrated that I had to divide my attention from Edward, so my response was a bit irritable. "Not that I could ever have a choice," I snapped, glaring at Jasper, then at Emmett. I did feel foolish for acting the way I did, and for trying to run away from everyone who was working so hard to keep me and my family safe. I felt bad for getting angry. "I am sorry I acted that way," I said, changing my tone.

"Don't worry about it, Bella," Alice said, "You just have to be more careful. James is going to try to do anything he can to get to you."

I nodded, knowing she was right. Everyone was very still now, and I was getting anxious now that nothing was happening. Unlike my vampire family, I couldn't stand still and calm for long periods of time. I started to shift my weight back and fourth, and resisted the temptation to tap my foot. I had to ask something, I couldn't endure this anymore. I looked at Edward, my voice was tentative, "What are we going to do now?"


	3. Discisions

**Author's Note. Please give me some reviews, so I know what's good and what's not. Thanks so much to the people who reviewed.**

**Disclaimer. I do not own Twilight, or the characters.  
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Ch 3 Discisions

we all had to plan what we were going to do. Edward's main concern of course, was to get me far away and hidden. My main concern was Renee, Charlie, and even though I knew they were capable of defending themselves, my vampire family. The only thing that was decided right now was Rosalie would continue to monitor Victoria, and Esme would continue to protect Charlie.

"We should follow the plan we had earlier," Edward was saying," You and I should go somewhere away from here, and away from James."

"Where do you think we should go?" I was thinking we might go far away, like maybe Africa, or Japan. Even in this bad situation, going to another country to be alone with Edward sounded very

desirable. Then I thought of something. "Shouldn't someone come too, so you can leave me and hunt?"

"Don't worry about that Bella, I just drank a bit while we were trying to throw James off your trail. I'll be able to go another week easily, maybe two weeks. You should only worry about yourself

right now," Edward reassured me, but I still wasn't satisfied, I knew Edward was going to get very uncomfortable not being able to hunt and staying alone with me in a small room like a hotel or apartment. He

turned to the rest of the group," If I'm going with Bella, what is everyone else going to do?"

"I think Jasper and I should try to find James, keep an eye on him, and prepare to attack," Alice announced.

Everyone looked at her. "Are you sure you want to do that?" Jasper asked her.

"Sure," she said convincingly," Following James is what you should be doing, and I want to be able to go with you. You know I can handle myself."

"Yeah, I guess you probably can, I just worry about you," Jasper agreed quietly.

"I want to go too," Emmett whined. His voice turned excited, " I want to be in on the action."

Alice glared at him. I got the impression she wanted to be with Jaasper alone, trying to hunt down this killer. Maybe she felt Emmett would get in the way.

I just had an idea, " Emmett, why don't you come with Edward and me, then Edward can have someone with me so he can hunt."

" Would you stop worrying about me," Edward growled. "You are the only thing I'm worried about right now."

"Why would I want to go with you guys anyway? Alice can go with you, and I'll help Jasper," Emmett complained.

"I don't need anyone to help me, Bella," Edward said, " I would rather all three of them make a hunting party. Taking James down is much more important than giving me a chance to hunt."

"Wait, think about this," I pleaded. "James is going to constantly be trying to find me, and we know he's pretty good at it, right? I mean, he was able to find me here pretty fast, so I think it's only a

matter of time until he finds me where ever I go." I turned to Emmett now, " I think more action might be with me, you could head a ways from us and try to slow him down or something." Now I turned to

Edward, " He would give you some extra help protecting me, and didn't you say I'm a magnet for danger?" Of course there were parts of my plan I didn't like, I was a bit worried about Emmett trying to stop

James on his own, and, I felt embarrassed that I was upset by this, Edward and I wouldn't be alone anymore. But at least I thought Emmett would leave us alone more often, to try to find James, then Alice

would if she came. I could see everyone was considering my plan.

Emmett was the first to agree," I think you're probably right, I could still work with Alice and Jasper, but I would be able to help stop him from a different direction. I could surprise him. I just need to be able to communicate with you," he added to Alice and Jasper.

Immediately Alice reached in her pocket and pulled out a small dark object. As she handed it to Emmett, I realized it was a cell phone.

Edward looked around, everyone looked like they agreed with Emmett and me. Either because it would help protect me, or help stop James from a different path. He knew he wasn't going to win this argument, and gave in, "Protecting you is the most important thing to me, and you're right, Emmett would be more than happy to help if James showed up." Edward still sounded a bit reluctant though.

"I still don't like the thought of you being uncomfortable for days because you're thirsty, and around me, and it has nothing to do with me," I insisted.

"Being around you is never anything that could make me uncomfortable." Edward looked like he was going to add something else to our little argument, but at that moment Alice's cell phone rang.

Everyone watched her as she opened it and answered. "Hello," she said calmly and quietly. There was a slight pause, " yes, she's right here."

My heart was racing, I was sure it was Renee, and I still didn't know what I was going to tell her. Alice handed me the phone, " Mom?" I tried to sound as clam as possible. Then I felt a wave of

calm from Jasper. This helped me a lot, now I was able to think better, and I would sound calmer and more reassuring to Renee. 'Thank you', I mouthed to him.

"Bella, I just got your message, is everything alright, are you alright?" She was defintely panicking.

"Everything's fine."

Before I could say anything else Renee interrupted, "Did something happen with Charlie? Where are you?"

"Mom you need to clam down, everything and everyone is okay," I reassured her, " I just really need you to trust me with this and do me a favor."

"What is it?" I was relieved to hear she sounded calmer.

` "Please don't come home until you hear from me again, please, this is important."

"Why, are you home right now?" She was panicking again.

"No, I can't tell you where I am, but this has nothing to do with me. Please just stay where you are for now." I was pleading with her now.

"I guess I'll stay a little longer, if it's as important as you say it is," she said reluctantly. "But can't you just tell me what this is all about?"

"I'm sorry, I just can't. Just trust me about this."

"I'll stay for a little longer," she still sounded very apprehensive and unsure.

"Not just a little longer, Please stay until I get in touch with you again," I begged.

"Bella, I just want you to keep yourself safe. Listen I have to go, I'm calling at a bad time right now." I felt uncomfortable about how she didn't say she'd stay as long as I wanted her to.

"Alright mom, I hope I'll see you soon. Bye." I closed the phone and handed it back to Alice. Everyone was looking at me a little suspiciously. "Don't worry, this time it was definitely Renee, I promise." Jasper nodded, and then the rest of the group seemed to believe me and relaxed a little. Everyone must have also known I am not a very good lier. "I'm worried my mom won't stay away from here for very long though. I really want her to be safe."

"I'd be more than happy to stay in the area and make sure your mom stays safe, in case she comes back, " Carlise offered. I had forgotten about Carlisle, he had been so quiet. This sounded like a good idea to me, this way Carlisle could help, and he wouldn't have to be part of any fighting or hunting.

"That would be great, thank you," I told him genuinely.

"So Alice and Jasper are going to search for James, I'll get a hotel close to Bella's house to keep an eye on that. Jasper, Alice you can come with me until dark, we'll take my car." Carlisle finalized our decisions. " All we need to figure out is where Bella, Edward, and Emmett will go."


	4. Traveling

Ch 4. Traveling

" I think we should go to another country." Edward said. "I want as many miles as possible between Bella and him."

"I don't know if that would be a good idea, " Alice said apprehensively. "I'm going to be keeping my visions focused on him, and if I see him get away from us and, I want to be able to

get there as soon as possible to help. If you're too far away, it's going to be a lot harder."

"She has a point, " Emmett said.

"Maybe we should just go into Canada somewhere," I suggested.

"We are not going to go with any of your suggestions," Edward said. "He is able to guess what you want to do too easily. Look at how quickly he found you here."

"How about New York?" Calrisle suggested. "There's a plane leaving in about half an hour for New York, and it wasn't suggested by either of you. I think he might be able to predict your plans too, Edward," he added.

"So, what are we waiting for?" Emmett asked impatiently, "Lets get going, we know what we're going to do."

Edward turned his attention from Carlisle to Emmett to glare at him. Then turned back to Carlilse and nodded. I wondered what Carlisle was thinking that Edward seemed to be listening to.

"I hope everyone stays safe," Carlisle said warily. He smiled weakly at Edward and me, and turned to go to his car.

Alice ran over to me and hugged me. "I hope everything ends okay," she whispered in my ear.

"Thanks, for everything," I was tearing up a little.

"It was no problem," she smiled. Then she turned to join Jasper and follow Carlisle.

"Come on, Bella," Edward said gently, taking my hand.

Emmett was already getting the tickets. He was coming back with three tickets. "They were actually easy to get," he said smiling. When we got on the plane, I sat next to Edward and took his hand

again. I felt exhausted now, the time away from him was very stressful, and now that he was with me again I could feel the toll that had taken. I rested my head on his shoulder and struggled to fight off the sleep.

Edward noticed, of course, "Why don't you go to sleep?"

"I just don't want to right now," I answered stubbornly. I wanted to be awake and enjoy Edward's company as long as possible.

"Just go to sleep, when you wake up we'll be there." He started to hum my lullaby. It felt like Jasper was there again, forcing sleep on me. I found myself once again hating that I was human and

had so many needs. I slept very lightly, and would keep waking up now and then. But each time I woke up I could feel Edward against me, and I felt so tired I would be back asleep in seconds.

Then one time I woke up and noticed it was becoming dark outside, and I could tell the plane had stopped. People around us were preparing to get off. I sat up, letting myself become fully awake.

"Good," Edward said," I was just about to wake you."

"What time is it?" I felt like I had been out for days.

"Here, it's almost six. Back in Phoenix it's only close to four."

I frowned. My sleep patterns were so screwed up already, and the change in time zones was only making it worse.

When we got outside the airport, I noticed two things. The first was I noticed it was cold. Even in the middle of spring, New York was a cold place to be. I began to shiver as I noticed the second thing. The signs all around me indicated we were in Albany. I blinked, "Weren't we going to New York City?"

I knew Edward was noticing my shivering, but he overlooked it. "No, we thought going to a country setting would be better. That's what Carlisle was thinking at least, and I thought it would be good to follow his advice."

"Why did he want a county setting?" I had been picturing staying in a hotel in the busy crowded city.

"For a few reasons," he started as we headed to a bus to go to a car rental place. "One is he thought it would be good to be in a place with less people, he didn't want him hunting a whole bunch of

other people while he tries to get to you. We also thought it would be more comfortable for you, less noise and people, and we can stay in a comfortable apartment this way. Which brings me to another

reason, it will be easier to be unexposed and inconspicuous, not as hard to hide our secrets. There will also be more opportunity to hunt."

I nodded, they seemed like good enough reasons. I also had to admit, staying in an apartment would be more comfortable, and I liked the thought that Edward would be able to hunt. We got on

the bus. It was a very quiet ride. Even Emmett hadn't said anything, he seemed to be thinking quietly in the seat behind us. This still didn't feel real. At least I wasn't any less calm, because even though Jasper

wasn't around to calm me down, Edward was.

"Are you hungry?" Edward asked me after he had rented a nice little red sports car, and we were inside, driving to some unknown location. Emmett and Edward both predictably insisted on a fast good quality car, I was just happy the heat worked well.

After he said this, I realized how hungry I was. Actually I was starving, I hadn't eaten all day. "I guess I am a bit."

We stopped at a nearby mall. Emmett groaned, and Edward glared at him. "You know it's not going to take as long without Alice," he growled.

"I'm still going to just wait in the car." Emmett complained.

I decided to get a sub for dinner, and we sat down so I could eat. "Do we need to get anything else here? I could just eat in the car," I offered.

"I hope you're not worrying about Emmett," Edward said disbelievingly. "He'll live, he can't always get what he wants. But, to answer your question, I do want to get some more food for you that

we can keep with us, and some warmer clothes."

As Edward had promised, we were fairly quick. I was so hungry, it didn't take me long to finish eating. Then Edward bought me some frozen meals, and other easy to prepare foods, so I wouldn't

have to worry about cooking. When we went back to the car it was now completely dark.

We drove just under an hour until the scenery was all country. Edward was focusing on the minds of people inside houses, hoping to catch something about any apartments available. We were

lucky, half an hour later he thought he heard something. There was a nice little apartment available in a little town, even smaller than Forks. Edward stopped at the owner's house to ask for information. Emmett

and I waited in the car.

When he came back he said everything was set, and he had the directions to the apartment. The apartment was only a few minutes away. We pulled up into the short driveway, and I

immediately liked how it looked. I thought it looked like a nice little house, even in the dark. There were no other houses visible, and the road was very quiet. The house was surrounded by fields on all sides, and I could vaguely see many trees making up woods beyond that. The area definitely looked very hilly and uneven, and it didn't look like there was a flat space anywhere. But the scenery still looked very pretty.

Inside was nice too. It was very clean, and I thought it must be fairly new. The door was a glass sliding door and just inside was a nice wooden table with two benches. To our right was the kitchen, and straight in front of us was the living room, with a leather couch and recliner. I already felt at home and comfortable here, Edward had found a nice place.

Edward had already brought the food in, and we worked to put that away. Then he helped me bring in my bags and we went to the bedroom to unpack. Emmett immediately flopped on the couch and

watched tv. After everything was situated we went in the main bedroom and sat on the bed together, silent for a while. To my disbelief, I was feeling tired again, I felt like I was in a daze.

Emmett's voice outside the door broke the silence, "I'm going to explore the area, " he called to us. "I'll be back in a few hours." Then I heard the door open and close, and we were alone. I laid

back against my pillow, and Edward did the same.

Edward was searching my face, no doubt wishing he could hear what I was thinking. "Are you really worried?" He asked, confirming my guess.

I thought about his question before I answered. "Really, I don't feel worried, but I also don't feel completely safe and untroubled. I feel numb, almost like I'm not even here."

We were both silent for a while. I took this time to inch closer and closer to Edward, until I was against him. His icy body against mine helped me feel more real.

"I really am sorry this happened to you," Edward apologized for the hundredth time quietly.

"It's not your fault," I said. I wasn't worried about myself anyway. I was worried James really would try to get to my mother or father, since pretending hadn't worked. I unwillingly started to think

of the week's events, watching James and his coven appear out of the woods, Edward defending me, the way I had to talk to Charlie to leave, how I had begged Renee to stay in Florida, how stupid I was to

believe James' trap, and the time I had spent away from Edward. I started to feel fear settle on me, and I started to realize just how much danger everyone was in, and how bad this situation was. I tried unsuccessfully to snuggled even closer to Edward and held onto him.

"Edward?' I whispered.

He looked at me.

"How long do you think it could take, for James and Victoria to be. . ." I couldn't say killed, and think of Alice and Jasper killing anyone, "gone so things can go back to normal again?"

I felt him tense next to me. "I would love to tell you this will be over soon, but I don't want to lie to you right now." He sighed, " James is very gifted, it could take a long time. But I can promise you I will do whatever I can to make you safe in as soon as I can."

"I know," I mumbled quietly. I didn't want to think about this anymore, but I also didn't like this silence, so I changed the subject. "Do you think we could see what this area looks like tomorrow? I'm curious about where we are. I've never been in New York before, or many places." I wanted something to do tomorrow, so I could keep my mind busy.

I felt him finally relax again at the new subject, "Sure, as long as the weather is right, and if it isn't we'll just go later in the day."

"That sounds good, " I yawned. I kept my thoughts as optimistic as I could, and focused them on exploring the area tomorrow. I tried to imagine what the surroundings and terrain based on what I had already seen in the dark as I felt myself inevitably drift into unconsciousness. The last thing I was aware of was Edward's arms wrapping around me.


	5. Waiting

Chapter 5 Waiting

I woke up and I could feel I was on something hard and cold, and realized I was half on top of Edward. I wondered how much I must have been tossing and turning through the night, and hoped

I hadn't said anything I didn't want to. I didn't open my eyes yet, but I could tell the sun was up and it was morning. It was also very windy and I could hear the fifty mile an hour gusts howling outside. But our little house was sturdy and didn't seem to have a problem with it.

"Are you ready to get up?" Edward asked quietly. I should have known he knew I was already awake.

I sat up and stretched, "Yeah I think so. I certainly slept enough yesterday. What time is it?"

"It's only eight," he replied.

I smiled, it looked like my sleep schedule was getting on the right track again.

"Do you want some breakfast?"

"In a few minutes. I want to get washed up first. Do we have running water?" I wasn't actually hungry, but I thought it would be a good idea to get some nourishment inside me.

"Yup, everything is still ready and running. The people who rented this place last just moved out a couple days ago."

"That was lucky for us," I said smiling. It was nice to not have to worry about all that kind of stuff. "I'll be a few minutes."

"I'll wait in the kitchen," he told me. He was pushing me to eat, probably thinking the same thing I was.

I grabbed some of my new warm comfortable clothes and headed into the bathroom. Like the rest of the house, the bathroom was impeccably clean and in good shape. When I stepped in the shower, the water came out fast, and dispensed hot water right away. I stayed in the shower a long time, enjoying the warmth. Eventually I had to reluctantly turn the water off and get dressed. Then I headed to the kitchen for breakfast.

There was cereal and milk from the food Edward bought me yesterday, so I poured myself a small bowl and ate slowly. I looked out the window as I ate, and my heart sank a little for two reasons. The first was because the sun was shining, with only a few clouds scattered around. It looked like we'd be stuck in the house most of the day. The second reason was even though the sun shone beautifully, the rest of the the scenery did not look very pleasant. The grass was brown and dead looking, but also very wet. Small mud puddles were scattered around everywhere, and there were still some small patches of brown dirty melting snow. Spring really was disgusting in the northeast.

I looked around the house, noticing how empty it seemed. "Where's Emmett?" I realized what was missing.

"He went out again really early this morning. He said, even though he's not thirsty, he just wanted to see what animals there are in this area." Edward grinned," I could hear him hoping there were some kind of bear around."

I suddenly felt sorry for any nearby bears. I finished eating and washed my bowl and spoon. Edward and I went into the living room to watch TV. The day was as uneventful and slow as I'd feared it would be. But it still wasn't the slow agonizing tourcher staying at the hotel with Jasper and Alice had been. This time I spent the long day curled up next to Edward. I worked to keep my mind clear so I wouldn't worry. Then things became a little noisier when Emmett returned later that afternoon, but it was still peaceful. I had to give Emmett credit, he was being less annoying than I ever thought he could be, and was usually very quiet. There was probably something on his mind, but I didn't think to ask Edward about it.

Around six that night, after the sun had set, Edward stood up and turned of the news I had been half listening to. "Do you still want to go drive around, and go out for dinner?"

"Yes." I was glad we could finally do something, the more I sat and did nothing, the more likely I was to worry. "Is Emmett going to come too?"

"I don't think I will, I'm just going to go out again on foot." Emmett said a little distractedly.

I looked at him, wondering why he was acting so out of character. I noticed he had the cell phone curled in his hand. I had forgotten all about it. "Is Emmett alright?," I asked Edward as we got in the car.

"Don't worry about him. He's only been trying to predict what James is going to do next," he sounded like he was talking cautiously, or trying to choose the right words. "Him and Alice have been

on the phone a lot, trying to strategize and catch him sooner than later."

I suddenly realized how easy it was for news and updates to be kept from me. Emmett could just listen to news from Alice while he was out, and Edward was able to read Emmett's mind. "Where is James right now?" My question was almost a demand for answers.

Edward sighed, and I guessed he didn't want to answer this. " Rosalie lost track of Victoria just a few hours ago. Somehow she was able to slip away, she seemed to know she was being followed. Alice and Jasper have been tracking James, and they've followed him into Pennsylvania. Alice is having trouble seeing the future right now too, James keeps changing his mind. We're worried he and Victoria know about Alice and how to cloud her visions."

I gasped, I didn't realize how close he was getting. At the same time, I didn't feel as worried as I thought I would, because this meant he was getting further away from Charlie and Renee.

Edward cringed at my reaction.

"Emmett's going toward Pennsylvania to see if he can cut him off. That's what Emmett's been planning, trying to find the best way to go," Edward added.

We were both silent for a while, I watched the scenery. There were a lot of hills, and a lot of leafless trees. After we drove for half an hour we came to a small town that seemed to still be covered

in snow. It was hard to tell though, because it was so dark. It also still very windy, when I looked at the mostly bare tree tops, they were always swaying back and forth wildly.

We came to a city after an hour. "Where do you want to eat?" Edward asked as we passed several restaurants.

"I don't know," it was hard to decide where to eat now that I was nervous and anxious again.

"How about here," Edward suggested indicating a fancy expensive looking Italian restaurant.

"I don't want gourmet food," I said truthfully. "How about something simpler, like that Pizza Hut."

"That seems good enough," Edward agreed.

Once we were inside, I realized it was possible to order the salad bar, which included soup, some pizza, and even dessert. That was what I decided on to eat. "What have you been thinking about," Edward asked me politely and curiously as I started to nibble on my small salad.

"I'm just remembering some good times I've had with Renee, and even a few with Charlie when I was little."

He smiled slightly, then looked serious again, "I promise everything will go back to normal, and you will be safe again."

I nodded, "I know," I did believe him. It was just hard to stay calm when so much was happening in such a short amount of time.

When we got home that night, I noticed Emmett wasn't around, but I didn't say anything about it. I had trouble falling asleep that night, even though I was tired and snuggled next to Edward. He

seemed to notice this and started to hum my lullaby. As always, this calmed me down and I felt myself fall into an uneasy sleep.

I woke up and found myself on my stomach, holding Edward's hand. I never slept on my stomach, I must have been really thrashing last night. I really hoped Edward wasn't getting too worried

about me, and I hoped again I hadn't said something to make him feel worse. I tried to smile, "I think I'm ready to get up now and have breakfast." I did feel hungry for once. Maybe having good food yesterday had done some good things for my metabolism.

He smiled back, "Don't you want to have a few moments to yourself first, to clean up?"

"I'll do that after breakfast," I said simply.

"Alright, lets go track you down some food," he said as he got up and held out his hand.

I took it and we headed to the kitchen. I pulled out a couple frozen waffles and put them in the toaster. While the cooked I pulled out the milk, syrup, butter, a plate, and a fork and knife. I ate

slowly, I didn't want to be alone yet. Eventually, I did finish, and I figured I wanted to be clean more than I didn't want to be alone. So I went in the bathroom and showered and got ready for the day fairly

quickly. When I got out, Edward was waiting for me on the couch.

I flopped next to him and snuggled up close to his cold hard body. We sat like this for a long time, not saying anything or doing anything. Everything seemed very quiet and peaceful lately, it seemed

strange that anything fearfully terrible was happening at the moment. I started to wonder what I was going to tell Renee and Charlie when this was finally over, but couldn't think of anything.

Suddenly Edward started growling furiously, making me jump. "What's wrong," I was starting to panick. Was it Renee? Charlie? Did he manage to hurt someone in my vampire family? And

how did Edward find out about whatever happened so suddenly?

He ignored me though, and continued to growl, looking at the door. He did wrap his arms around me a bit tighter, in a more protective way. Someone must be coming here I thought. I tried to keep

myself composed and collected, and looked out the glass door too. I saw a fast blur headed straight for the door, and felt the edge of pure panic and terror, but before I could react in any way, the door

opened and I discovered it was just Emmett.

"What do we do now? We have to find a way to get her away." Edward spoke with a mix of panic and fury before Emmett even closed the door.

"Please," I begged, "tell me what has happened!"

Edward finally looked at me, and I almost gasped and jumped again at the pain and anger in his hard topaz eyes. He tried to keep his words emotionless, but he was unsuccessful in completely hiding

his frustration. "Emmett just got a call from Alice while he was out. Alice saw a vision of both James and Victoria arriving here. To make things worse, she predicts that's about to happen withing minutes, and

they must have found out enough about Alice to change their intentions constantly. Even now, Alice sees them arriving and showing themselves in various ways. She doesn't know how they will show themselves, she only can see when."


	6. Cornered

**Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed. I am having a lot of fun writing this fic. This chappy in particular was fun (and very difficult) to write. **

**Chapter 6 Cornered**

"What are we going to do now?" I tried to keep my voice coherent.

""We have no choice," Emmett said quickly. "There's no time to run, and we're going to have to fight him. Alice said everyone is heading up here as fast as they can to help, but Alice and Jasper don't know when they can be here, and everyone else is at least a couple hours away."

Edward growled again at his words. "I need to find a place to keep you safe." His eyes searched around for a spot. Then he grabbed my upper arm and dragged me gently to a corner. "I still want you fairly close to me," he explained.

Edward and Emmett discussed how they planned to do things very quickly and quietly so I couldn't quite hear them. Edward stayed protectively in front of me the whole time. It looked like Edward would stay close to me, and Emmett would be in the front, ready to fight first. Emmett looked ready to fight, Edward looked furious and frustrated. I felt numb, the fear and panic left me frozen and unable to move. All I could do was watch, my eyes wide with fear, and my body trembling slightly.

All too soon I heard Edward growl again, and I figured they were close enough that Edward could read their minds. "It's only Victoria," he hissed. "She's being very careful to keep her mind very

focused on Bella," he snarled quietly. "I can't find anything about James, where he is or what he's planning."

By the time he finished saying this, Victoria was already coming in the door. I struggled to keep my breathing quiet, I didn't want to go into a panicked hysteria and attract more attention to myself. I

already wished I could be invisible. Victoria's face was very focused on me, and looked only to me. I guessed she was still keeping her mind to me, so thoughts of whatever James was planning could not sneak into her head. Edward stayed in his protective crouch, and Emmett looked ready to charge.

Then it happened fast enough that I could barely see it. Victoria lunged towards me, and Emmett crashed into her, knocking her away, and slamming in the wall behind her, breaking it down. I

could now see through the big gaping hole to outside, where Emmett and Victoria were struggling. Frigid air surrounded me as it blew through the the absent wall. I saw her leap away from him before they could start wrestling, and Emmett flew back inside, to keep himself between her and me. She jumped inside right behind him.

She tried the same thing again. Like the last time, Emmett stopped her and cracked some of the floor boards along with another small part of the wall in the process., and she pulled away to compose herself for another attack. She attempted to attack again and again, and every time Emmett stopped her. The house looked like it was ready to crumble. Edward stood behind Emmett, and in front of me, ready in case Victoria got passed. But at the same time, I could see some of his attention was somewhere else, and he was alert, no doubt listening for James, trying to find where he was or what he was thinking.

Suddenly, Edward snarled, and before I knew what was happening, I found myself in Edward's arms flying through one of the holes Emmett and Victoria had made. At the same time, I heard a loud crash behind me. Once everything stopped moving I found myself outside, about ten feet from the house. Through one of the gaping holes, I saw James, standing right where I had been, with a new gaping hole behind him. I struggled to keep from hyperventilating now, realizing how close he had been to getting me. I could see Emmett still fighting with Victoria, keeping her away. But nothing was holding James back.

Edward snarled again at James, and flung me, as gently as he seemed to be able to in his state, over his back. Then we were off, everything was a blur as he ran. Even though I couldn't see anything but a blur of yellow-green and brown, or hear anything except wind rushing past my ears, I was sure James was following right behind us. I just held onto him as tight as I could, and continued to focus on breathing. Everything still seemed too unreal to be happening, as if I were in some sort of dream.

I saw a blur of red hair in front of us, directly in Edward's path. He tried to avoid her, but she continued to be an obstacal. I felt Edward slowing slightly as he struggled to find a way around her. I thought my heart stopped, and I was surprised to hear myself scream as I felt a hand over my heavy sweat shirt crush itself around my arm, and rip me off Edward. I crashed to the ground, and James was facing me, his eyes only showed pleasure and excitement, it reminded me of a house cat tourchering a mouse. Edward spun around and lunged at James, throwing him further away from me.

Edward was on top of James, they both crashed into each other again and again, each time James was trying to get closer to me and Edward would push him back again. I felt frozen, and I was

vaugely aware of a sharp pain in my arm where James had grabbed me. On my other side I saw Emmett had followed Victoria, and he continued to keep her away from me. I turned my attention back to Edward and James. Both of them were snarling furiously, and Edward didn't even look like himself. His face looked so focused on fighting James it actually scared me a little.

I gasped as I felt a pair of strong arms scoop me up. I was about to scream, thinking Victoria must have got away from Emmett and grabbed me, but then I noticed black short hair, instead of the

expected flaming red. Alice had come out of nowhere, and had me in her arms. She looked around at the scene in front of her. I looked too, and saw Jasper next to James one second, then in another second I saw one of James' bloody arms in Jasper's hand. It still moved, and appeared to be trying to get back to its body. I felt like I was going to be sick.

Edward looked at us suddenly, and I shivered from the look still on his face. His eyes focused on me for a few seconds, and I saw the Edward I knew for a moment in the previously vicious face. He now almost looked apologetic, and if I had been closer to him he probably would have apologized again. I wanted more than anything to run over to Edward and let him hold me, but Alice still had her arms tight around me.

Edward's focus turned to Alice. "Get away from here," he said furiously. "We can handle this."

Alice nodded and swiftly ran with me back the way we had come from. I looked at her, and she looked like she was concentrating on something. I guessed she was trying to see future events. She ran with me back to the house, or what was once a house. The half where the fight had been had collapsed, after not having enough support to hold the roof up. But she wasn't going to the house, instead she went to the little rented car, and gently put me in the back seat behind the driver's seat. With vampire speed she ran to the front and got in.

Seeing Alice again, and getting away from the fight made me feel a little more real, and the pain in my arm was now searing and almost unbearable. I continued forcing my breathing into deep breaths, focusing only on breathing now, in an attempt to keep my mind away from my arm. Alice didn't seem to notice my distress, and she had her window rolled down, probably trying to listen to the fights.

Several minutes passed like this, and then I noticed Alice relax. "It's over, Bella. At least for now."

I processed her words more slowly than I should have. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion now, and I was having trouble concentrating, especially with the blinding pain in my arm.

"What do you mean, for now?" I managed to whisper.

"James is dead, you'll never have to see him again, but. . . Victoria did manage to get away." She looked at the horrified expression I must have had and added, "But she won't be coming back

right now. I'm sure of that."

This news was hardly comforting. I was about to ask if everyone I cared about was alright, when I saw all three of them running over. Edward immediately got in the back next to me,

and Jasper sat in the front. Edward gathered me onto his lap, making more room for Emmett as he slid in the other side.

"Are you okay," he asked intently.

I didn't answer him, as he had sat next to me, I felt the numbness dissapear entirely, and all the stress of the last few days hit me at once. I broke down, sobbing into his shoulder. I was dimly aware

that Alice had started the car and we were moving. Edward gently rubbed my back, trying to comfort me. I heard him mutter an apology now and then. I didn't know how long I cried into him, but the pain in

my arm was making it very hard to think about much anyway. I felt so exhausted, and everything seemed distant, except Edward since I had myself pushed as close up against me as I could.

I stopped sobbing and felt my eyes close. I snuggled into him, letting his comforting words sink into me. I couldn't believe James was gone. This whole ordeal felt like it had lasted years, rather

than just a few days. My consciousness was slowly slipping, and I fell into the first easy, calm, deep, and peaceful sleep I had in days, despite the horrible stinging pain still burning in my arm.


	7. Questions

**Ch 7 Questions**

As I woke up, everything seemed strange to me. I almost felt like I was under water and I felt very disoriented. I had already become half awake several times, and fallen back to sleep seconds later. Most of the times I had become semi conscious, I could tell I was still in the car, still safe in Edward's strong cold arms. But the last time I was slightly awake, I could feel I was being carried, but I was too tired to fully wake up and learn where I was.

This time I could tell I wasn't in the car, and I was fairly comfortable. My arm was almost unbearable, and I wasn't quite tired enough to be able to ignore it, and fall asleep again. But I also was too tired to open my eyes. There were no sounds, and I wondered if I was alone, or if everyone was just keeping quiet. Then I suddenly realized Edward's arms hadn't been around me, and my eyes flew open.

I was in a cozy looking hotel room, I noticed the bed I was in was huge, and the pillows were very comfortable. Bits of sunlight poked through the edges of the green blinds that covered the large window. The room was fairly big, even though it only had one bed. I wondered how expensive this room must have been. In the corner was a table with food. Edward was sitting at the table, his face in his hands. My heart sunk as I realized he still felt guilty about everything that had happened.

I started to get up, to approach him and tell him I was fine. But Edward noticed my movement and was kneeling next to the side of the bed in an instant.

"How are you feeling?" he asked as he lightly put his cold hand on my forehead. "You still have a little bit of a fever."

"I do?" I felt so oblivious to my own health. That explained why I felt so strange and exhausted. I didn't want Edward to worry about me, so I had already decided I wasn't going to complain about anything. "I feel alright," I said answering his earlier question.

He shook his head, "Bella, don't try to cover how you're feeling. Please tell me the truth about how sick you think you are. You've been asleep for almost eighteen hours."

I had to repress a gasp, I couldn't believe I had slept that long. I mentally checked my body over, and assessed how I felt. But I still tried to completely ignore my arm, I wanted Edward to stop worrying about me, the pain wasn't unbearable, at least not yet. I didn't think it was broken or sprained, because I was able to move it a little. Edward had specifically asked me about how _sick_ I felt anyway.

"My muscles are pretty sore, I feel very weak, and I'm really thirsty," I told him truthfully. "I probably just have a mild flu."

He seemed to relax a tiny bit at my answer, probably remembering how bad a lier I was. But he still looked concerned, "I bought you some food, it's on the table for you. You should probably get something inside you."

"I am pretty hungry too," I admitted with a smile. I slowly pushed myself up with my good right arm and stood up. I felt a bit dizzy, but overall I figured my health wasn't too bad. I walked to the table and sat down. The food consisted of a lot of different fruit, a bagel, and some small boxes of a variety of cereals. There was some packages of unopened disposable dishes next to the large tray of fruit. "I am really glad you have this food ready for me," I said as I picked up a large strawberry.

He smiled his crooked smile, "I thought you would be"

I felt so relieved to see him smile like that. I wanted things to go back to normal. The long sleep I had already seemed to have removed almost all of my stress. My head felt clear, and I felt calm and relaxed for the first time in days. I really was glad Edward did not seem to be as stressed anymore.

Edward opened the small fridge at the other end of the room and pulled out a pint of milk, two bottles of orange juice, and a small container of cream cheese. "I had Alice and Jasper get this food and bring it over before they left last night," he said as he found places on the crowded little table to set things down.

His statement made me think of several questions. "So you got to ask me a bunch of questions, now is it my turn to ask some?" I asked.

"Of course, Bella," he said sincerely. "You have every right to ask about anything."

"Where's Alice, Jasper, and Emmett?" I spoke between nibbles of food.

"They ran back home last night, so they could meet up with Carlisle and discuss what we're going to do next."

"Why are we here, and where are we? Shouldn't we be with them?" It felt like the more answers I got, the more questions I had.

He smiled wryly, "I don't think you would have wanted me to carry you for hours of running at vampire speed, in the middle of the night, to get back to Forks." Then he frowned, "Besides, I could tell you were getting sick, I didn't want to put you through anymore yet. That's why I decided to stop here and let you rest."

He was definitely right, I wouldn't have wanted to be carried back to Forks, and it did feel nice to rest in the calm quiet room, alone with Edward.

"We drove most of the day, so we could all stay out of the sun," Edward continued. "We are in Indiana, and Alice stopped here when it grew dark. Emmett headed back right away. Then, like I said she and Jasper bought food, so I could stay with you in case you woke up, and they ran back. We'll catch a plane once you think you've rested enough."

"What time is it?" This was the last of my simple questions.

"It's fairly early, seven AM."

I sighed, "So, what are we going to tell Renee?" I wanted to call her, and be able to assure her everything was fine, but I didn't think I could do that without an explanation to what I'd requested of her.

"We haven't thought of anything, that's something everyone was going to discuss back home. We'll figure something out to tell her."

I nodded. I was full, and I stood up and started to put the extra food away, still being cautious with my arm. "I think I'm ready to go home as soon as you're able to go out," I said glancing at the bright edges of the window. "It was nice to sleep comfortably, but now I want to apologize to Charlie, and get caught up in school. I just want to be back home."

"In the mean time, why don't you continue to rest?" Edward said. "I want you to feel better."

Resting did sound desirable. This flu really still had me tired, and I almost felt like I could even go back to sleep. I went back to the comfortably bed, and carefully sat on it and arranged my body so I could sit up against my pillow. Then I looked at Edward, still standing by the table, watching me. "Do you want to continue to rest with me?"

He smiled slightly and noiselessly got on the bed next to me.

There was one more question I really wanted to ask, even though I had already been told the answer. I just wanted to hear a sure answer from Edward one more time. "I just want to be sure," I started timidly and quietly. "Is James really dead, or gone, or whatever you want to call it?"

I felt him stiffen a little, "Yes, I can promise you, you will never see James again. He is gone." Edward spoke with such confidence that I believed him. But his voice sounded like there was another problem, and some other danger was on his mind. I tried to think what could be bothering him, and I remembered Alice had told me Victoria had still managed to escape. I was about to ask what we were going to do about Victoria, and if she was even a danger to me, but Edward spoke first.

"It's starting to rain. Maybe we can head back today, lets just check the weather to be sure it's not going to clear up later." As he said this, he picked up the remote, and turned the large TV on to the weather.

I watched closely as well, I was excited that I might get to be home by the end of today. The weatherman didn't disappoint, it was supposed to rain all day.

Edward pulled out a cell phone phone. "Hey Alice, is it safe to come back today, and how will weather be at the airport?" The conversation only lasted a couple seconds. Then Edward snapped his phone shut, and turned to me. "Do you want to find an airport and go home now?"

I nodded. This change to be able to leave had happened so fast. It seemed like Alice's weather prediction back home was the usual weather for Forks, and Port Angeles was going to have no sun either. Edward got up, and with his vampire speed, he had everything packed in a second.

Just a few hours later, we were both sitting on a plane, ready to go to Port Angeles. Thankfully, the weather was not bad enough to cancel any flights. A while after we took off, I thought about the last time I was on a plane heading to Port Anglelas. Last time, I was dreading going where I was going. It amazed me how much had changed in just a few months. This time, the plane was taking me home, and I wanted nothing more than to be there. I carefully readjusted my position so the edge of my back was against Edward, instead of my arm, and snuggled closer to him as I thought about why Forks had become a different place for me. I started to daydream about the first times I saw Edward, the first conversations I had with him, the time we went to the meadow. . .

"What are you thinking about right now?" Edward asked me politely, bringing me out of my pleasant dream world, and back to the present. Edward still seemed to be as frustrated as ever about not being able to hear my thoughts.

"I was Remembering some of my favorite memories." I noticed I felt sleepy again. I was sleeping way too much lately.

"So what are some of your favorite memories?" His voice was lighter, and more relaxed.

"I bet you already know," I said dreamily. My mind was already floating back to my dreams where I left off.

"Maybe not, I can no longer say I'm a mind reader when I'm around you," he teased.

"Well, right now I'm remembering the first time you kissed me." I had my eyes closed, picturing him slowly coming closer, remembering the feeling of his lips on mine, and how I had less control than he did.

"That is one of my favorite memories as well." His voice sounded almost as dreamy as mine.

We were both quiet for a long time. I fell into an uneven, feverish sleep. Sometimes I was awake, and when I was I continued to reminisce. I began to think how being with Edward was worth everything I went through the past week. Then I would fall asleep again. The last time I woke up my mind unwillingly started to drift to last week. This time I was glad when Edward's voice interrupted my thoughts.

"We are about to land," he said quietly. Right after he said this, the plane began it's dissent.

"How are we getting to Forks?" I knew Edward wouldn't make me run with him.

"Alice is waiting for us with my car. I can hear her thoughts now."

A while later, after we landed, and we were getting off, I groaned, suddenly remembering what we had to figure out. "I really hope we can think of something convincing to tell Renee."

"We will," Edward reassured me. "I'm sure between all eight of us, we'll be able to think of something.

Then, a little ways in the distance, I could see Alice waiting for us. Seeing her familiar face made me even more impatiant to get home. This was going to be one time I would enjoy riding in a car with a vampire behind the wheel.


	8. Illnesses

**So I'm not sure if I should include a fight with Victoria or not. I was wondering what you guys think. If I let Victoria live, the next chapter might be the last one, if I include Victoria's death I don't know how many more chapters it might be. So please review and let me know. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. **

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Chapter 8 Illnesses

As I had expected, the drive back to Forks went very quickly. After Alice had greeted me with a hug, we got in Edward's car. Edward drove, I sat next to him, and Alice stayed in the back, chattering happily about how we needed to have a celebration. She was mentioning plans of a big shopping trip, followed by a party. That was honestly the last thing I felt like doing, because I did feel very tired and sick, not to mention my arm still hurt. But I didn't want to complain or seem weak, I already felt very pathetic and fragile when I was around the Cullens.

It was so nice to be inside the Cullens house again. Esme ran up to me and hugged me, saying how glad she was I was safe. Carlisle came to me and quickly inspected my health, confirming my guess on the flu. I decided I would tell him about my arm after we figured out what I would tell my parents. Jasper nodded to me with a small smile, keeping his distance.

"lets go into the dining room," Carlisle said," Emmett and Rosalie are in there waiting for us. We might as well decide what to do as soon as possible so Bella can go home and rest and not become sicker."

I was about to protest that my health was not that big a deal, but Edward must have known what I was about to say. One look from him stopped my words short before I even opened my mouth, so I just nodded and followed Carlisle with Edward walking beside me, holding my hand. Alice came in after us.

Emmett and Rosalie were standing next to the large table talking about something so fast that I couldn't understand anything they were saying. Once we came in they stopped talking and looked at me. Rosalie greeted me with her usual glare, which I did my best to ingnore.

"Hey Bella," Emmett said in a much too excited voice,"it's been a long time since I've seen you!" I just rolled my eyes, because we both knew we had seen each other just. . .

Suddenly I realized time had meant almost nothing to me, and I didn't even know how long it had been since I first saw James that day. As I thought about it, I remembered it had been from Sunday night until Wednesday morning that I had been away from Edward. It was easier to remember how much time had passed then, because time had move so painfully slow then. I couldn't think of how much time had been spent with Edward, time was just a blur then. It also didn't help that I had been sick probably most of that time, making me feel even more tired, and sleep more than I usually would.

"How long were we in New York." I asked Edward as we all sat down at the table. As I sat, I realized how exhausted I had been, and I wondered if I would be able to go to school anytime soon. Then I thought of something else," What day and time is it now?" I wondered how much school I had missed.

"We arrived in New York Wednesday night," Edward started, " and we were there all of Thursday. Then we left late Friday afternoon." I shivered as I remembered why we left. "We were in Indiana late Friday night to to this morning. Obviously it is Saturday now, and it's getting late, almost seven."

I looked out the window and realized the sun was beginning to set. This meant I had only missed one week of school. that wasn't so bad, I was confident that I would be able to get caught up again.

Carlisle started the discussion," We all need to come up with a story we can tell Bella's parents, so we can keep any suspicions to a minimum. Does anyone have any ideas?"

I picked the worst time to be clumsy. Momentarily forgetting about my arm, I quickly shifted my position slightly and somehow ended up banging it lightly against the back of my chair. I couldn't keep the pain off my face, or hold in the quick gasp, as the searing pain shot through my arm. The worst of the pain only lasted a couple seconds, but that was more than enough time for my reaction to be seen by seven ultra sharp pairs of eyes and ears.

"Is something wrong with your arm," Edward asked quickly.

"It's fine," I started, but Edward interrupted.

"I should know better than to ask you," he mumbled to me. Then he turned to Carlisle, "Can you look at her arm?"

"Definitely. Bella, why don't you come over to the couch, where it's a little more comfortable."

I sighed, it seemed we would never figure out what I would tell everyone. There was no way I was going to get out of having my arm checked now. I wondered how I was going to get out of my heavy sweatshirt. I hadn't showered since yesterday morning, so I hadn't tried to take it off, and I hadn't seen what my arm looked like. I sat on the edge of the couch. Edward and Carlisle stood right in front of me, and everyone else had followed, staying out of the way with looks of curiosity or concern on their faces.

"Do you think you can take your sweatshirt off?" Carlisle asked me gently.

"I don't know." I said truthfully.

"Do you mind if it gets a little destroyed?"

"Not really." I didn't really care much about clothes, and this shirt had just been bought at the mall in New York. I figured it had just been something temporary for the colder weather up there.

Carlisle nodded and gently took my sleeve. Then with perfect precision he smoothly ripped through the heavy cotton, until he went through the entire shirt and was able to take it off. He was able to do this in seconds, without touching my arm in the slightest. I shivered slightly, because I still had the chills, and that shirt had been keeping me warm. Then I glanced at my arm.

The painful spot on my arm was very colorful. It was mostly a very deep purple. There was also some small amounts of deep red, and an ugly yellow on the edge of the bruise. The bruise was about five inched long, and covered the entire circumference of my upper arm.

"Bella, why didn't you tell me about this?" Edward asked me in disbelief.

"I didn't want you to worry, or blame yourself," I mumbled lamely

Edward gave me a stern look, "Your well being is much much more important than me."

I didn't think I could agree to that, and I didn't respond as Carlisle started to inspect my arm with his able sensitive hands. His soft cool touch felt nice, and he put just the right amount of pressure, not too much to hurt, but not too little so it tickled. "It's not broken or sprained." he announced after a few quiet minutes. "But I think the bone and muscle have been bruised. I can feel the blood leaking very deep down. It is very lucky there isn't any broken bone or torn muscle."

"What can we do for it?" Edward asked.

"Not much unfortunately. We can give her pain killers, maybe ice it a little, although the swelling is minimal, and lots of rest. But it should start to feel better in a few weeks," Calrisle said confidently.

"Maybe between the flu and bruise she should just go rest now." Edward suggested. "It's still the weekend tomorrow, she could sleep here, and the rest of us can still try to figure something out."

"Don't I get any say in this," I snapped, I was getting annoyed from being treated like a child. I also didn't like the idea of not being a part of the conversation we were about to start a few minutes ago.

"No,' Edward said, his face and voice were still stern. "Obviously you have no idea how to take care of yourself. Who knows how hard you are pushing yourself right now to stay awake. You look like you're going to fall asleep any second."

I started to protest, but I was interrupted.

"Bella, Edward is probably right." Now Carlisle was against me too. He felt my forehead, "Your fever is getting worse anyway. That's not a good thing. I'll go get you a prescription strength dose of ibuprofen. It'll help the fever and the bruise, then we should get you to bed."

As Carlisle talked about my fever I came up with an idea, but he vanished out of the room before I could say anything. I could remember learning something about fevers in a health class I took a few years ago. "A high fever can cause confusion and make people disoriented, can't it?" I asked Edward.

"I guess so," Edward said, obviously confused.

I smiled. It looked like I might be able to have a say in my story after all.

Carlisle came back in the room, carrying the pain relievers, a blanket, and a large cup of water. "You should take these, and drink all the water. We need to be able to keep you hydrated," he told me. Edward took the blanket from him and gently threw it around my still shivering body.

"Carlisle, do you know of any illnesses that cause a very high fever, and a lot of confusion," I asked thoughtfully after I took the ibuprofen and drank a few extra sips of water.

His face lit up, and he immediately understood what I was thinking. "I do, we could say you have meningitis or encephalitis. Then we could maybe stretch the truth a little about what the symptoms would be and the length of recovery. We can tell Renee that you thought someone wanted to kill her, but you were actually just confused from a high fever, or something like that. Do your parents know much about diseases?"

"Hardly anything," I told him happily. "We could tell them the flu and a common cold are exactly the same thing, and they'd believe it."

"So, it's your story and your idea, do you have a preference for a disease to tell your parents?" Carlisle asked me.

"You could say you have rabies," Emmett teased. His voice almost startled me, I had forgotten everyone else was still in the room, because they were so naturally quiet and still.

Edward growled halfheartedly, "That's not funny, Emmett."

"I think I'll go with encephalitis, " I decided. "I'm not very familiar with it, so I know Charlie and Renee won't know much about it." After I spoke, I couldn't stifle a yawn. I was feeling more and more exhausted, and I didn't know how much longer I could stay awake. I thought Edward's and Carlisle's suggestion for me to sleep first sounded pretty good, especially since the hard part of determining what to tell my parents was over.

The yawn certainly wasn't unnoticed by Edward either. "Do you think you could please come up to my room with me and sleep now?" he asked anxiously. "I really don't want you to get any sicker, and if you rest more, you'll recover faster."

I nodded and gave in, satisfied with the outcome of the day. The pain relievers were kicking in anyway, and I was feeling better and even sleepier. "We can call Renee first thing when you wake up, and take you home tomorrow. We'll figure out the specifics tomorrow" Edward told me as he easily scooped me up, blanket and all. Then before I could protest that I could still walk, I was in Edward's room, being laid on his couch. He started to hum my lullaby, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to stay awake any longer. I fell asleep in seconds.


	9. Promise

**My day has really sucked, so I worked on this chapter to help me feel better. Please tell me what you think.**

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Chapter 9 Promise

My life was finally back to normal. I felt so relaxed and happy to be back home. I managed to get caught up completely in school, both my parents bought Carlisle's encephalitis story, and I was completely recovered from the flu. The entire process of reconstructing my life had been so effortless and quick, it was like there had never been any problems with James or Victoria. In fact I hardly had any memory of the time between coming home and the present.

I was at the Cullens house, at a celebration, which had been Alice's idea. There was a lot of laughing, and smiles. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood. The feelings of euphoria were almost tangible, and even the colors and lighting of the room seemed to glow exceptionally. I was in a good mood as well. It felt like there were no problems anymore, and the party wasn't so bad. Edward, of course, was at my side the entire time. As long as Edward was with me, almost any day could be a good day.

I suddenly had a bad feeling. the laughing stopped, and the good feeling was gone. I could swear I noticed everything become darker. The shapes of about seven or eight figures outside made me tremble uncontrollably. I almost lost consciousness when I spotted both Laurent and Victoria, through the large window, in the front of the group. They walked with malicious grins, and familiar cat like walks. The dark figures behind them were too vague to make out any features, or be able to tell who they were.

Everything happened too fast for me to keep up with. My entire vampire family flew out the door and proceeded to rip everyone apart. There was too much energy, too much movement, and the terror in my

body made clear thoughts impossible. The limited view out the window didn't make it very easy to see what was happening either. I watched a bloody mess of moving body parts appear as I gasped for air. The writhing arms and legs inched and crept to the torsos they had been torn from. I saw a disconnected hand flopping in a pile of blood, like a fish out of water. I could hear breaking bones, and sounds of tearing flesh. There was also a lot of vicious growling and snarling. All the parts were being tossed into a large bloody twitching pile, and after a few moments there was an enormous fire, that engulfed the pile of squirming body parts.

All the noise stopped, and all I could hear were my own breathless gulps of air. I was too petrified and dazed to even describe myself. The first thing my frozen mind began to think about was if all the Cullens were still alive and ok. What if one of them had been torn up and burned in that fire?

Edward was at my side in seconds after the fire had been started. "Bella I think we need to go somewhere and talk about something," he said quietly.

I was very relieved to see Edward next to me, but this felt so strange. Why was Edward saying this to me? I really wanted to know if everyone else was unhurt. Maybe I hadn't heard him right, my brain was working very slowly. My body was in agony from the exhaustion of being so horrified, and the the fear I felt had not left me. He helped me climb onto his back, and then ran at his super fast speed while my mind was still attempting to catch up with what just happened.

We didn't run for very long. Edward came to an abrupt stop in a small clearing in the woods, and I slid off. I was surprised my body was still standing, still functioning at all. My entire world seemed so unreal again. The sudden shock must have really taken a toll on me this time.

I heard Edward's voice, but didn't hear what he said. I starred at him, trying to understand.

"I said we can't be together, " Edward said angrily, as if I had told I didn't hear him. "You are not good for me. I am too dangerous for you."

No, this couldn't be true! I couldn't find my voice. I wanted to scream, beg, sob, or be able to do anything. I didn't even think I could walk. All I could do was stand there, immobilized and speechless, while I stared at him in disbelief.

"I need to leave you, Bella. Don't try to follow me. We will never see each other again, and I promise I will never endanger your life again." With those words Edward vanished from my sight.

I began hyperventilating. My chest hurt, my body hurt, everything hurt. I suddenly found my voice. "No Edward, come back!" I screamed "Don't leave me!" My screams became lost in unrestrainable sobs. I began to hear my own sobs more clearly, and I began to feel a bit more real. My sobs increased, and suddenly my eyes flew open.

I was in Edward's room, on his couch. It must have been some time in the middle of the night, because everything was pitch black, and I couldn't see a thing. My body trembled violently, and my breathing was still in fast uncontrollable sobs. My heart was pounding much too hard and fast. Hot tears ran down my face, and I had sweat forming over my entire body, and I still shivered partially from being cold.

"Bella, calm down, it was just a nightmare. I am right here," My eyes began to adjust to the darkness, and I saw the source of the concerned velvet voice.

Edward was kneeling next to the couch. His cold hands wiped sweat from my forehead, and stroked my face comfortingly.

I couldn't respond, because my breathing was still too frantic. Everything had seemed so real, I had thought it was really happening. I tried to calm down, as I told myself Edward's words. It was just a nightmare. He is right here. My breathing began to slow down. My heart rate slowed to an almost healthy level. I concentrated on Edward, feeling his hands on me told me he was still there.

"I'm not sure. Her fever has become worse, and she just woke up from a nightmare," Edward anxiously answered an unspoken question.

I was dimly able to see Carlsile approaching. "Bella, do you think you can sit up for a moment?" he asked calmly.

I didn't think I could speak yet, so I just nodded. Edward helped me sit up against the arm of the couch. Carlisle handed me a couple pills, and a large glass. I clumsily threw the medication into my mouth and raised the drink to my mouth with shaking hands. I took a sip, and found this time it was some kind of juice, probably grape. It tasted good, and I discovered how thirsty I was. It took me a while to finish the drink, because I could only take occasional sips in between my rapid breathing. By the time I finished the juice, my breathing was down to a normal speed and I was feeling much calmer.

"Thanks, Carlisle," I whispered shakily.

"Anytime," he said. "You should go back to sleep now. I think you'll be fine." He soundlessly left the room.

"Edward, you're not going to leave me, right?" I whispered to him. I just couldn't shake off the bad feeling I had from the dream.

Edward smoothly sat on the couch next to me, gathered me into his arms, and adjusted the blanket around me. "I will not leave you, I'm right here. Go back to sleep now, love. I want you to get better," he said soothingly.

"But I don't think I can," I whispered to him. "That nightmare bothered me too much. I just can't get it out of my mind."

"What was it about?" he asked. "Was it about Victoria?" his voice had a mixture of apprehension, regret, and anger.

"Part of it, but the worst part was when you left me. The pain I felt in my dream when you left was actually real, I've never been in that much pain in my life." As I said this, I pushed myself closer to him.

"I left you?" he said in a shocked voice. "Bella I would never leave you." he said sincerly. "I can't even leave you for a second. You're in too much danger right now."

"Danger from what," I asked nervously.

Edward instantly seemed to regret his last sentence. "It's nothing, you don't need to worry about it. Why don't you just go back to sleep now." He started to hum my lullaby again.

This didn't work to distract me. Something about Edward was too restless, he just was not calm. I knew he was just trying to distract me. "I'm not ready to go back to sleep yet. Tell me why I'm in danger," I spoke with my voice for the first time tonight.

Edward sighed and waited a moment before he answered. "Victoria wants to plan revenge. I was able to get a good look at her mind before she somehow got away from us, and she is so furious that I killed James. . . she wants her revenge by killing you." His voice and face turned from regret and apprehension to anger and determination," But I will not leave you for a second. I will keep you safe, and we will catch Victoria and kill her. She will never be able to even touch you."

I nodded, this news actually wasn't that much of a surprise. I kinda knew all along that Victoria was still a major threat. That was probably why I dreamed about her. But I had a dream about Edward leaving me too.

"Can you promise you won't leave me, even when Victoria isn't a threat anymore?" I begged.

He was silent for a short moment. "I promise I will never leave as long as you want me. I can see if I left, it would hurt you more than I imagined."

"That is all I wanted to hear," I whispered. I felt much better now. My muscles had relaxed, and the terror had completely left me, leaving extreme exhaustion in its place. My eye lids began to droop. "I love you,"

I whispered, as my eyes closed.

"I also love you, so much," he murmured. "I will be right here, and I will never leave you. I promise," he said again.

After he said this I must have fallen asleep again. My dreams returned, only this time they were just strange, or funny. They didn't feel very realistic either. I certainly didn't experience a dark haunting dream like that one again.

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**A/N Edward never promised in Twilight that he would never leave. In my book on page 473. In the hospital, after Edward says something about how he is not strong enough to stay away, he still doesn't promise when Bella asked him to.**

**Bella thinks, "He did not promise, though- a fact that I had not missed." This was something I decided I would change. Hearing Victoria's plans for revenge, and seeing the effect on Bella from just a nightmare she had because she had a high fever are the main things that made up Edward's mind to stay. I also wanted to say, Bella got sick from the stress of the very long week,**


	10. Resuming

**A/N Once again, thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed so far. I also wanted to let everyone know that Bella is awake in this chapter. I won't try to trick anyone like last chapter again. I'm sorry that time seems to move really fast in this chapter.  
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Chapter 10 Resuming

I fought to keep my voice sound as sick and weak as I could. "Hey mom," I said through the phone after Carlisle had finished explaining my fabricated disease to Renee. He had explained my illness perfectly to my mother, using complicated medical terms, describing my symptoms, and telling her I was making a great recovery so there was no need to worry. Of course she still did worry, which was why she had insisted that I talk to her. Carlisle had handed me the phone, then left me alone with Edward.

"Bella! I'm so glad you don't sound as bad as I thought you would," she exclaimed.

Had I sounded convincing enough? I wanted to sound sick, but I didn't want to sound so bad that my mother would rush to an airport to see me. I kept my voice the same, "I feel much better today." This was the truth, my fever had broke, and I felt much better in every way. I was just still a bit tired and had some remnants of the sick feeling. My arm still hurt a lot, but the pain was bearable as long as I didn't touch it.

"I'm really glad to hear that," she said. "Can you remember last week at all?"

"Not really," I started through one of my rehearsed lies carefully. "I can only remember feeling really tired, and for some reason I thought somebody wanted to kill you. I thought if you came home you would be murdered."

"I guess you must have been very sick to be that confused," she said sadly. "I knew I should have come home, something just didn't seem right."

"I am alright now," I told her. "I really am recovering fast, and I'm sorry I had you worried about me"

"Don't apologize, it's not your fault you got sick."

Her words made me feel guilty. Most of what Carlisle and I had told her had been lies. I felt bad to have her worry about my health when there was almost nothing wrong with it.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come over and see you?" she asked again.

That was how the conversation continued. Renee asked me several times if I was really fine, and I tried to convince her several times that I was. Finally she decided to believe me and told me she would relax as long as I promised to call her as soon as I could tomorrow.

After the repetitive conversation finally ended, I looked at Edward. He had been sitting next to me the entire time, holding my free hand. "Can I go home now and see Charlie?" I asked him.

"After you've had something to eat," he made his voice sound stern, but I saw I smile playing on the corners of his mouth.

"Will you at least let me walk to the kitchen," I said smiling.

"Hmmm, no. I still don't think you are strong enough," he teased back.

I tried my best to glare at him, but as soon as I looked at him I couldn't make my face look angry. Instead I just looked away, got up, and started to walk downstairs. But before I had moved two steps I could tell Edward was coming up behind me. "No, Edward," I squealed between giggles. Edward gently and swiftly scooped me up and flew down the stairs, and set me down on a chair in the kitchen.

"You know, you are still awfully pushy," I tried unsuccessfully to make my voice sound angry.

Edward's mouth twitched as he fought a smile, but he ignored my remark. "Do you have any preferences of what you want to eat? We happen to have a lot of food in our house"

"Not really, just something simple."

Edward was able to make me perfect fluffy pancakes in five minutes. I wondered how he was able to cook so well, when he couldn't test the food, or smell it the way a person could. I pushed the curiosity out of my mind. He was able to do anything. It seemed so unfair that someone could be so good at everything. But I also realized how lucky I was that this perfect being was mine.

After I finished eating, Carlisle called Charlie to explain my "encephalitis" to him, and tell him Edward was bringing me home. He explained to Charlie the disease had caused a high fever, and the fever had caused my emotions to become chaotic. He said that was why I had become so angry at Edward for no reason. He was describing how he and Edward had found me after I had left when Edward and I walked out of the house to get my truck.

My truck was still waiting where I had left it, parked in the Cullen's garage. I had to let Edward drive my truck, for Charlie's benefit. We couldn't get there as fast as we might have if we were in Edward's volvo, since my truck could only go up to sixty. The drive lasted long enough for me to become nervous. The entire ride was spent in silence. Edward seemed be in deep thought, and I was worried Charlie wouldn't believe Carlisle's story. I was becoming more anxious just to get home and resume my life.

We finally pulled into my driveway and I saw the curtains shake. It looked like Charlie had been watching for us. I took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself to lie to Charlie again. I couldn't stop myself from remembering last time I had been home. I had to prepare myself to lie to him then too, and it had not been one of my favorite times with my father.

"You've been awfully quiet, are you nervous about talking to Charlie?" Edward gently asked.

I nodded stiffly.

"It's not going to be bad," he assured me. "Charlie just sounds like he missed you, and he's mostly relieved you are home again and alright. I can hear he truly believes you were very sick and it caused you to act hostile and upset."

I relaxed and nodded again. I felt better after Edward said this. It was definitely encouraging to hear. But I still couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

"I think I'm ready to see Charlie now," I said. We both got out of the truck and went into my house. I was sure Edward could hear my pounding heart, and he took my hand and squeezed it gently.

A few hours later, Charlie, Edward, and I were sitting in the living room watching a movie. We were in good spirits, It was hard not to be when to much happiness was flowing from my father. Just as Edward had predicted, the conversation with Charlie had gone smoothly and easily. Charlie completely forgave me, and was more than happy to have me home again. He was not mad at Edward either, because Edward truly had not done anything wrong to make me angry, either in my story or reality. After the initial emotional greeting had passed, we all agreed to put on a movie.

My life seemed like its was well on its way to being normal again. I glanced at Edward, and once again it felt like my heart had stopped. His perfect body and face still seemed too impossible to be real. Well, I guess my life was becoming as normal as my life can be, since I was in love with a vampire.

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**Three months later**

I held my breath as I opened my report card. Final reports had just arrived in the mail, and Edward and I were in my house with the mail. I exhaled in relief when I noticed all my grades were great. I guessed that missed week of school hadn't impacted me much. Edward had helped me, he had taken these classes so many times he could teach the material better than the teachers could.

"So, how did you do?" Edward asked me smugly.

"As if you hadn't already guessed from my reaction," I said as I handed it to him.

"Didn't I tell you your grades would be excellent?"

"Yes, you have," I admitted. In fact he had probably told me a hundred times, but I just was not confident enough in my work to believe him.

Now that it was summer vacation, Edward and I were able to spend even more time together. This of course included visiting with the rest of the Cullens almost every day. I felt like my life couldn't be anymore perfect.

We spent the rest of the day at my house. I had to get dinner ready for Charlie anyway. By eleven-o-clock Edward had to "leave". As much as Charlie seemed to like having Edward around these days, he would not be happy with Edward spending every night at our house. Edward would spend an hour outside, before he jumped in my window after Charlie was sleeping.

After Edward was gone, I headed up to my room to wait for Charlie to go to sleep. The late June night was warm outside, so I opened my window to let some fresh air in. I had almost forgotten about James and the problems he had caused. But I had not been able to forget about Victoria, especially after I had learned she was planning revenge. My fears about her were always somewhere in my mind.

I went to my bed, laid down, and put my headphones on with some quiet music. I closed my eyes and imagined what an eternity with Edward would be like. This had become my strongest desire, to be like Edward, and have the ability to spend the rest of time with him. Edward had refused to agree to my plan, so all I could do was dream about it right now. But I would not give up, I hoped eventually Edward would give in and turn me.

It felt like I wasn't alone anymore. Edward had probably just arrived. But when I opened my eyes, it was not what I expected. The first thing I saw was the familiar flaming red hair. I started to scream, but Victoria clamped her hand over my mouth before I could make a sound.

She roughly grabbed me with one arm and held me against her chest, while still keeping her other hand over my mouth. I struggled uselessly against her hold, and continued to attempt to scream for help against her hand.

In a fraction of a second we were out my window and running away from my house. I felt frantic, and I tried think. How did this happen? Where had Victoria come from? Why hadn't Alice seen this?

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the only thing that could possibly give me any hope in this situation. Edward was right behind us. He snarled viciously, his face was more furious and paniced than I had ever seen it. He was gaining on us, and it would be only seconds before he caught up to us. I tried to free my mouth to scream, and I continued to struggle against the restraining arm, but of course my attempts to get loose were to no avail.

I heard Victoria laugh excitedly. I glanced at her face, my eyes filled with pure terror. Her eyes only showed pleasure and excitement. I couldn't bare to look at them any longer, so I searched for Edward again.

I couldn't see him! I redoubled my efforts against Victoria to scream. I suddenly remembered she had some ability for evasion. I searched around frantically for Edward, but all I could see was a blur of moving trees. I couldn't believe this had happened so suddenly. My last hope was gone, and now Victoria had me. I didn't want to think about what she would do to me, or what she could do to me.

I didn't know how long I had been struggling, and how long we'd been running. I only knew I was desperate. Desperate for this to be another dream, or desperate for Edward to find us. But I was in too much physical pain from Victoria's crushing arm around my body, her hand against my mouth was so tight I was begining to taste blood, and I was far too tired from struggling for this all to be a dream. I began to feel myself black out. This was too much stress on my body again. The last thought that crossed my mind before I completely lost consciousness was, "_I'm going to die. I can't belive it's over, I am really going to die."_

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TO BE CONTINUED?


	11. Evasion

**A/N this one is a little short.**

**I made this chapter in Alice's POV, because it will help make sense of the story, she is great character, and I thought it would be fun to use her for this part in the story. Thanks so much for everyone's reviews.**

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**Chapter 11 Evasion**

**Alice POV**.

"Come on Jazz, I know you can run faster than that," I laughed as Jasper fell behind. We were racing to the closest prey, which happened to be just another deer. So, to make our hunting trip a little more exciting I had proposed a race.

Wordlessly Jasper picked up the pace, and before I knew it he was ahead of me. This was more like it, he was always too easy on me. I pushed my legs to move a little faster, and I began to catch up. I could see Jasper right ahead, smell the sweet scent of the deer, hear several small animals franticly moving away from us, feel the wind whip past me, and even taste the moisture in the air. Then suddenly everything I could sense was replaced. I heard myself gasp, and felt my legs stop moving, but I wasn't in the woods racing the man I loved anymore.

Instead I was near Bella's house. I watched in horror as Victoria was chased by Edward. She was leading him away from Bella's house. Then she lead him on a fake trail and went back to the house to catch Bella. After she had Bella struggling in her arms, Edward had found her again. The vision ended with Edward being lead to another well made wrong path. I heard myself scream to him, to tell him which way to go.

I realized I was not screaming to Edward, instead Jasper was in front of me looking concerned.

"What was it, what did you see?" he asked anxiously.

Jasper soothingly took my hand and squeezed it. I felt myself calm down a lot. "Victoria is going to lead Edward away from Bella, then kidnap her. The vision was very strong, which means this is going to happen any second, and she might even be leading Edward away right now," I spoke with a forced calm voice.

"Do you think we can stop her?" I could hear the panic sneaking in Jasper's usually smooth voice.

"I don't think we can make it to the house or Edward in time, but we might be able to cut her off. I could see which direction she plans to go." As I said this I started to run in the direction I continued to vaguely see Victoria move in my visions. Jasper followed closely behind me.

Jasper and I were both running faster than we had been when we raced. This was very serious, we could not let Victoria get away. I didn't want to have visions of Victoria killing Bella. I also didn't want to think about how much it would hurt my favorite brother.

"This is the area I can see Victoria running through," I informed Jasper when the surroundings outside my mind matched the ones in the visions..

"Lets head toward Bell's house. maybe we can cut her off," he said.

"That's exactly what I was thinking." I could smell Victoria's and Bella's scents as we ran. I kept my eyes alert and listened carefully for any signs of them.

After a few minutes I thought something seemed wrong though. Was it just me, or did the scents seem to be fading? It was as if we were moving away from Victoria and Bella. I could hear Edward screaming for Bella.

"Crap!" I heard Jasper say angrily.

I felt pure dread take over. Somehow Victoria had succeeded. She had not only evaded Edward, but she got away from Jasper and me as well. I could hear Edward coming closer.I'm so sorry, I thought to him when he was close enough to hear me. She got away from us.

Edward appeared and stood next to us. "She had a sudden desire take Bella," he snarled through his teeth. This explained why I had not seen this soon enough. "I could hear she wanted to take Bella to avenge James..Since she saw James die, she couldn't wait until she would be able to follow through with some strategies she had been thinking about to try to get even." Edward was pacing now with his fists clenched. "She was going to try to make an army of newborn. . . "

Edward broke off after I began to see Victoria again. She had entered a half destroyed old abandoned house. I did not want to see the things that happened next, but I couldn't stop the vision. Finally the vision ended. I looked at Edward, knowing he had seen the same disturbing and horrible scenes I had.

He growled furiously, letting his anger out even with Jasper's best efforts. "We need to find that house!" he roared.

He now knew the way to Victoria as well as I did, and ran to find her. Jasper and I tried to follow his speed as he got further and further ahead, pushed by panic and rage. I really hoped we would make it to her in time. I did not want those things I saw become real.

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**Warning- The next chapter may be a bit dark, just in case anyone is bothered by painful events. I have not written it yet, so I'm not sure how bad it will be. It might not be bad at all. I'll try not to make it too bad.**


	12. Pain

**This is back to Bella's POV. Most of this chapter was inspired from New Moon, when Bella sees and talks to Laurent in the meadow.**

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Chapter 12 Pain

I was aware someone was tying my hands and legs. There was no noise, except a muffled sound of chirping birds and my own heart. My side was pressed against what felt like a hard-wood floor, and my hands were tied in front of me around something large and hard. It surprised me that I knew who was calmly tying me. I did not think I should have been able to remember everything that had happened with Victoria, but I could recall the memory of being kidnapped very easily.

That still did not mean I wanted to accept what had happened. I refused to open my eyes, even though I felt wide awake. I tried to ignore the terror I felt, but I found that was not possible. My heart was racing and I could not catch my breath. But I still kept my eyes shut, because I did not want to look at the face of my killer.

"I think it's time you wake up," Victoria's shrill voice spoke softly in my ear.

I almost began to hyperventilate, but I would not allow myself to make a reaction to add to her enjoyment. I felt ice cold hands lightly touch my hands, and I repressed a shudder. The cold finger deliberately tapped each of my fingers on both hands. My heart was thrashing so hard it hurt. My body began to tremble violently, and I knew there was no way Victoria still thought I was asleep. I squeezed my eyes tight, still not wanting to look at her.

I felt her fingers clamp over my left thumb, and before I knew it there was an unbearable searing pain on my nail. My eyes popped open from the pain, and a scream forced its way out. As I blinked away some tears and tried to bear the pain I noticed it was not my nail that hurt, the nail was no longer there at all. My sobbing increased when I saw Victoria take my next finger in her hand, and pause.

"Please stop," I sobbed.

"That would not be very fun for me. No, I have decided your death will come slowly and painfully. Besides, I think you might taste better this way, your blood will just be more satisfying." Victoria said pleasantly. "I thought your nails would be a good warm up," her smile widened as she spoke. With that I saw her pop the next nail with a flick of her finger.

I saw the thick blood ooze out from the absent nail before I felt the nauseating pain. I couldn't restrain another scream, and my sobs increased to a new level. Why couldn't I just pass out? Why couldn't Victoria just kill me quickly? Victoria was obviously thrilled with my reaction, and she laughed. Her eyes were shining as she bathed in her revenge.

She grabbed my middle finger and positioned her other hand to take the nail off. I almost started to beg and plead, but I realized it would only add to her delight. I shut my eyes again and tried to only focus on something else. My sobs had not subsided at all, and I could feal my heart hammering throughout my entire body. I counted the rapid beats, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. . .

That's when I felt the pain. I couldn't hold my eyes shut any longer or resist the scream. Victoria laughed out loud, and her chime-like laugh only added to my distress. Without warning, she flicked the last two nails on my left hand off. My blood curdling scream was the only sound in the house. As I screamed I felt myself drift in and out of conciousness. I felt very nausious again and threw up on the floor. I tried to breath, and stop screaming, as Victoria continued watching me with delight, as if she was seeing a good action movie.

"Do you want a snack," I heard a familiar voice say between my cries. I glanced up and saw Laurent standing above me Why was he here? I thought he had moved to Alaska to try a new life style. "There are two humans coming to investigate the noise," he said with a quick look at me and a grin, showing off his perfect white teeth. I was able to see his eye, and they were a very dark red, the color of a thirsty vampire's eyes who had a diet of human blood. The same colored eyes Victoria had. It seemed he no longer planned to be a "vegetarian".

"A snack sounds wonderful," she practically purred. In a flash they were both gone, leaving me alone with my pain.

My thoughts were too occupied with my own problems to worry about the unlucky hikers. At least they would be killed quickly. I felt so unbearably weak, and I was becoming mad at myself for making so much noise. It was my fault after all for getting two inoccent people killed, just because I couldn't deal with this pain quietly.

My sobs diminished a bit, and I focused on taking deep breaths. The smell of my own vomit near my face was intoxicating though, and made deep breaths much more difficult. My body was still trembling uncontrollably, and the pain was excruciating. The searing pain from each finger felt like it was traveling up my entire arm. I had never been in this much pain from anything I could remember, and this was only the start of what Victoria, and now Laurent could and would probably do to me. I tried to take my mind off my pain, disscomfort, and fear by looking around.

The room I was in looked like a dining room in an old abandoned house. My hands were tied to some kind of support beam. The wood was splintery, and every inch of the house I could see was covered in a thick layer of dust. The only source of light was from the shaded woods outside the grimy windows, and the only furnature I could see was broken parts of what was probably once a table and chairs.

There was a blur of movement, and two sets of bright red eyes were in front of me again. I looked away from them and stared at a large dirt spot on the floor in front of me. I did not want to look into there eyes, and I did not want let them see the pain and fear in mine.

"Where did we leave off?" Victoria asked happily as she bent down and took my right hand.

I couldn't believe what I did next, as I began screaming and pleading hysterically and incoherently. I did not even know what I was saying, but I was begging with Victoria. Giving her exactly what she wanted.

She laughed, thrilled with my reaction and snapped my thumb nail off. Again, I could not hold back the scream. As I sobbed, an image of Edward came into my memory. I wished he was here, even if it was just to comfort me. Just his presence would give me the strength to bear this pain. I thought about how I was letting him down by giving Victoria her desires. The least I could do to fight back, the least I could do for Edward, would be to not give anymore fuel to Victoria's victory. I promised myself I would not show anymore emotion and pain until I died. There had been other people in history who had been tortured for various reasons who did not give in, and there was no reason I could not do the same.

As I felt Victoria take my next finger, I lightly closed my eyes and thought about Edward. His image in my mind became a great thing to help control my emotions. I felt the next nail get ripped off, but this time, with all my determination and as much focus as possible on happy memories, I was able to keep my mouth closed. There were still three more nails to practice with before Victoria moved on to a more painful torture, and that was how my last nails were pulled. I managed to keep myself controlled, and my eyes never opened. My mind felt like it was becoming detatched from my body. It felt very strange to force my mind into a differnt place, while I was still aware of damage being put on my body.

I felt a sudden blow on my lower stomach, so hard it threw me against my restraints. I could feel damage there from the force, but still I did not react, make a sound, or open my eyes. I continued to focus on Edward, think only of Edward. A snap on the upper right side of my back made my eyes fly open, but I still did not make a sound. It felt like a rib had been cracked on my side.

With my eyes open I could see the disappointed angry look on Victoria's face. Clearly my change in reaction had made her angry, and now it was my turn to feel some amount of victory. I had discovered something I could use to fight back, at least a little.

"We are going to have to move," I heard Victoria say disgustedly to Laurent, who had been standing contently to the side, happy just to watch. "I can feel our pursuers coming near. We should relocate before the come any closer."

Pursuers? Who was chasing us?. Somewhere deep down my mind already knew who it was, but I didn't want to fully realize it. I was afraid if I hoped too much that I could be saved, my mind would reconnect with my body, and I would feel this pain more intensly again. I had to do everthing I could to keep my power against Victoria and remain quiet and emotionless. So, I didn't think too much about why we were moving somewhere else, or the possibility of being rescued.

She easily broke the thick ropes binding my hands, and picked up my limp body. Essentially, I had let my body die, and only kept my mind alive. I did not even pay attention to the passing scenery as she ran, and still thought about Edward. I remembered the first time I saw him, and I thought about some of the best times I had ever been alone with him. I imagined his perfect face, velvet voice, and wonderful scent. I could almost feel his cold hard lips on mine as I pictured us kissing, and his gentle arms around me as he held me.

After what seemed like a couple hours, I felt my body get dropped, jostling my broken rib, and bruised hip. My mind floated away, and watched the abuse continue more severely to my body from a distance.

It was just disorganized thrashing, hitting, and beating. Victoria broke several more bones, and caused more bruising around almost every part of my body. Every move she made was deliberately slow, so she could try to make them as painful as possible. She waite at least five minutes between each hit, to let the pain of each injury sink in before the next one. At the same time, she was careful with each blow not to hit too hard, because she still didn't want me dead yet.

I was able to watch Victoria pick up a broken shard of glass from the barn we were in. Laurent was standing above me, eying me hungrily, or in his case, thirstily. She made a very slow long cut down one arm, then made another on my other arm. Dark red blood gushed from the deep wounds, but I had perfected my control over myself so well now I didn't even twitch or whimper. Victoria's face showed disappointment, anger, and determination, but no longer held any trace of enjoyment.

My consciousness was definitely slipping now. My ears began to ring loudly, and my already distant vision of reality became darker and darker. I was able to notice Laurent's face, he looked crazy, ravenous, like he could not stay away from me any longer. His eyes looked very eager to get to me, and his breathing became loud and rapid. My slow mind finally realized what was different. This was the first time any blood had come out of me. Until now Victoria had not let me bleed, except for the tiny bit that came from my nails. I was at this point lying in my own blood, and I couldn't help but remember how I had been told, at least a couple times, that I smelled very apatizing.

My eyes closed, and I felt myself drift. Then I was back again, and I opened my eyes to see Victoria fighting Laurent. Her face looked similar to his, ravenous, and unbearably thirsty, but she still did not want to kill me yet.

"I just want one more reaction from her," she said in between her efforts to push him away.

"She's almost dead, I want to get to her now!" I almost couldn't recognize Laurent's voice because it was so wild and frantic.

I continued to drift rapidly in and out of consciousness. Each time I woke up, the two were still struggling. Victoria was still very determined to get me to scream, writhe in pain, show some fear, cry, or something. I felt happy again to have that power over her. I would be the winner In a way when I died, because Victoria was not going to get any more satisfication from me.

The next time I drifted out and into consciousness, I had to blink several times to make sure what I saw was real. Edward was right in front of me, crying tearless sobs. Victoria and Laurent were wrestling with Jasper and Alice.

"Bella, I'm so sorry," he cried. "I should have been able to stop her, I should have been more careful." As he said this he very gently took my hand with one hand and stroked my hair with the other, pushing the sticky strands out of my eyes and off my face.

"Edward," I murmured slowly. "You're really here." I had spent such a long time focusing only on thoughts of him, and now I could tell he as really here.

I had not been able to feel much of the damage inflicted on me, but now I could feel Edward's cold touch. I felt his cool perfect touch on my face, and my hand in his. He seemed to suddenly bring me down to Earth. I felt as much pain as my body was probably capable of feeling at once, and I began to sob. Everything became sharper, my heart began to pund harder, my body started to tremble violently again, I felt a little more awake, but at the same time the pain was unworldly. I was amazed I was alive, let alone concious. My body must have been stronger than I thought.

I was giving Victoria the reaction she had wanted after all. But it didn't matter anymore now that Edward was here. I couldn't even find the energy to scream, so I could only sob. I wanted to pull myself into Edward's lap. I longed for him to hold me, but my body felt so heavy, I couldn't even lift my hand, and I could not speak in between my cries.

I suddenly wanted to live, I had the strongest desire not to let myself die. I wanted to have the oppertunity to be with Edward. I knew I had the strength and determination to live, and I did not want to let Edward or myself down.


	13. Defended

**I am so sorry that I didn't get this out much sooner. I had to finish a huge essay, and when I came back to work on this I got a writer's block. Anyway I finally have the next chapter done. I think there will only be one more chapter (maybe two) and this story will be finished. **

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Defended

Chapter 13

Edward and I had been able to have a conversation without words. I couldn't speak, but I felt like I was able to tell Edward, in some way I couldn't understand, that I would be alright. I was sure he was able to understand me and knew I was in pain, but I was determined to live. Edward had stopped apologizing with words, but the way he tried to comfort me, the way he caressed my hair, the way he kissed me on my forehead several times all told me somehow he was still sorry. I kept pleading with him to realize this was not his fault, and I didn't blame him for anything.

At the same time, Edward and I looked over to see Jasper and Alice still struggling. They seemed to be a perfect match, Jasper against Laurent and Alice against Victoria. Edward looked like he had no desire to leave me to help his family. I was surprised with how easily Edward could be near me when my blood was staining the dirt floor of the barn. But he wasn't even holding his breath. I didn't think that Edward might not be the only good vampire around me that had a possibility to not be able to resist my scent.

As I watched the scene around me and tried to stay conscious through my intense pain, I saw Jasper's expression change. I felt Edward stiffen next to me, and I watched in horror as Jasper began to look similar to Laurant. His eyes became wild and thirsty, and his breathing came harder and faster. He was struggling to stay sane, but another part of him was being taken over by the same thing that already had Victoria and Laurant.

Edward was suddenly no longer kneeling next to me, but instead he was fighting with both Jasper and Laurant. Everything had shifted so quickly I hadn't been able to see it. Jasper was now trying to get to me as much as Laurant was. Edward was attempting to keep both of them away from me by himself. I saw Alice try to help him a couple times, but Victoria was turning out to be as much as she could handle.

Edward bodily threw Laurant, sending him crashing to the floor. While this was happening, Jasper was coming towards me in a blur. Thankfully Edward was able to run so fast, and he caught up to Jasper just before he got to me. I could see Edward was trying not to hurt his brother as he grabbed his arm and threw him away from me.

I really wished I could do something to help, but I couldn't even move my body. I saw a blur of movement and Edward crashed into Laurent again, and slammed him into the ground, creating a small crater. To my horror I saw Jasper was no longer where Edward had thrown him. I searched around frantically to try to find him. I almost screamed when Edward and Jasper were suddenly almost on top of me. Edward was having a lot of trouble against Jasper. Jasper was able to throw Edward a few times, and Edward could not get away from him. They were now an even match.

I saw another movement out of the corner of my eye. When I looked over I saw Laurant climb out of the hole in the dirt floor and look at me victoriously. He now had a perfect opportunity to get to me. There was no one here who could stop him.

I was about to close my eyes, so I wouldn't have to watch him kill me. The skin on my neck was tingling with anticipation for the painful bite that was about to come. But before I could close my eyes I saw another shift in the scene around me. Laurant was no longer coming to me and he wasn't even anywhere near me. I looked questioningly at Edward and Jasper, but they were still wrestling and Laurent wasn't near them.

A movement towards my left caught my attention, and when I looked over I was shocked to see Laurant with his face in the ground and Emmett standing on top of him.

"I thought you guys would need me," he said smugly.

Now I had more questions than I could think of. Since I wasn't really able to ask any of my questions myself, I was happy when Alice asked the first question I had in my mind.

"Where did you come from?" she panted as she as she struggled to throw Victoria away from her.

"I saw you and Jasper run off somewhere while I was hunting, so I followed you guys. I'm surprised you didn't see me coming. I bet you don't know Carlisle is coming too."

"I haven't been paying attention," she gasped as she was thrown into the ground.

I almost gagged as I heard the disgusting sound of breaking bones. I tried not to look as Alice was finally beginning to win against Victoria, but before I could stop myself I took a glance in that direction and wished I hadn't. Victoria's head was rolling on the dirt floor with a painful glazed expression. One arm had already been torn off, and Alice was on the process of tearing off the other. Looking away still didn't stop me from hearing it unfortunately.

"Bella? Can you hear me?" I heard a familiar voice ask gently. Carlisle had now arrived.

"Yes," I was only able to whisper.

Carlisle began to gently press and feel several areas on my stomach. As he did this I heard more tearing and ripping body parts, and again I couldn't stop myself from looking at the fight.

Vampires are very hard to keep up with, especially when you are fighting to stay conscious. The scene around me had shifted again. Edward was now helping Emmett rip Laurant apart, and making sure Victoria's creeping arms and legs didn't find other body parts. Jasper and Alice weren't anywhere in sight.

A sudden severe stinging pain near my abdomen made me cringe and groan as Carlisle pressed. Edward was at my side in an instant. He caressed my face gently, and his perfect touch helped slice through my pain. Then he gently took my hand, held it to his face, and softly kissed it.

"Do you think we are able to move her?" he asked Carlisle. "Emmet thinks it would just be best to burn this entire barn, and I agree with him."

Carlisle just nodded, but I could see something in his expression that something was bothering him.

Edward very carefully picked me up and smoothly ran out of the barn. He had been so perfect about it I had hardly even felt my position change a centimeter, and I didn't feel any added pain as he ran. We only ran for one second before he gently set me down again. The barn was no longer even in sight. Edward had put my body down but still held my head in his lap as he sat next to me. I could feel his icy cold body against mine. It still helped me stay with reality and concentrate on what was happening around me.

We were in a beautiful open field, and it almost even reminded me of our meadow back home. It had purple flowers everywhere, evenly mixing purple with green grass and stems. There was a soft cool breeze in the air, and I could smell the strong scent of smoke in it. The sun was shining brilliantly, but we were shaded from it by a line of trees just to my right.

Carlisle knelt next to me and continued palpating my entire body again. After only two seconds he stopped and shook his head sadly. I felt Edward become rigid, and my blood ran cold as I wondered what Edward was reading from Carlisle mind.

"Edward, I'm sorry, but there is nothing I can do. I have checked three times, hoping I was wrong, but several organs have been damaged and she has lost way to much blood. Her entire body is dieing very rapidly. There is nothing else we can do."

Edward still didn't respond. He didn't move, relax, make a sound, anything. Even in my state, I was able to figure out what I had been missing. I tried not to think about how my life was about to change so drastically so quickly, or how I technically wouldn't even be alive at all. I didn't want to have any second thoughts about this

"Edward, please. I don't want to have to leave you yet." I could hardly hear myself, but I knew Edward had, because he finally softened.

"I'm sorry this is happening to you. Are you sure you want to become a monster just to be with me? It is my fault you are like this in the first place," as Edward said this I could hear the self directed anger in his voice.

I just slightly nodded my head. Being with Edward was all that mattered. Before I knew it I felt Edward's lips pushing into mine. As our lips meet again and again I felt his fingers wrapping around my hand. With what little bit of strength I had, I closed my hand around his. Both our hands felt like they had the same temperature. I wanted this kiss to last forever, but of course it did have to end.

"I love you more than you can imagine," he said passionately as he pulled away.

"I should probably turn her now if we want this to work," Carlisle said before I could respond.

Edward nodded and began to relunctantly move away. I tried to grip his hand harder, and hoped he knew me well enough to understood what I wanted. I was relieved when he looked at me with understanding and self dought in his eyes.

"I don't know if I can stop," he said sadly and quietly.

"I trust you," I whispered.

"I'm going to try to do this, Carlisle," Edward said.

"I know you can do this son," Carlisle encouraged.

Edward slowly bent down to my neck, and I felt his lips gently kiss my neck again. I took a deep breath, one of the last necessary breaths I would ever take, and tried to prepare myself for what was about to happen. "I promise I will do my best to stop," he muttered in my ear. Then I closed my eyes as I felt his teeth sink into my neck.


	14. Adjusting

**This is the last chapter! But I am planning to throw in a really really short epilogue in a couple days. I can't believe I waited so incredibly long to finish this. But now I'm hoping I can concentrate some more on my other story, and hopefully I won't let myself get so behind in schoolwork anymore to write. But here is the conclusion. Thanks for all the people who reviewed, you truly kept me going, and it feels great to complete my first fanfiction.**

**I tried not to make this too much like Breaking Dawn, but it was hard since that is how I feel Bella's transformation should be like. So I'm really sorry if this sounds a lot like Breaking Dawn in some ways, I just couldn't change it.  
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Chapter 14 Adjusting

My eyes finally flew open, and all the unbearable pain I had been feeling for so long finally was gone. I gasped when I got my first real look at everything around me. It was all so clear. In fact all my senses seemed so much sharper and stronger. It was more than I had ever sensed in my life.

The field I was still in was beautiful, even now when the sky was overcast. I could clearly see every purple flower among the green grass and ferns. The purple colors no longer blended in with the green like I had remembered, but now it was a very distinct and separate color.

I could hear several animals running, eating seeds and grass, climbing, flying, squeaking and chirping, and even their rapid breathing and heart beats all at once. At the same time that I heard these distant sounds, I was able to hear quiet and anxious breathing from somebody right next to me. I could feel and even tast the heavy moisture in the air, and I somehow had a feeling that it was going to rain. But even with all this at once, it didn't overwhelm me, my mind was able to comprehend all these sounds and sights with no trouble.

I had been able to look and hear everything in my area in less than a second. Now I glanced over to see who was next to me. I could hardly believe my eyes as I took my first look at Edward in three days. Now I knew I had not been ever been able to see him correctly. I could not take my eyes away from his perfection.

I gasped as I felt his hand lightly touch my face, pushing stray strands of hair behind my ear. His hand felt so warm and soft, much different than I had remembered. At the same time my own gasp startled me a little. It startled me becuase of the way it sounded, not quite like how I remembered my own gasping. It also startled me because of how unnecessary it felt, but at the same time it brought out an intense dry aching thirst. I almost became lost in that thirst, but I changed my focus back to the feel of Edward's touch.

"How are you feeling," Edward asked gently in a slightly concerned voice.

"Better than I was," I murmured as I tried to ignore how strange my voice sounded to me. I also couldn't help but remember the intense pain that I was finally relieved from. The burning excruciating hell I had been living in, or in my case dieing in, for what seemed like years had been worse than when Victoria had been torturing me. After all I had been through this burning thirst felt like nothing, and was very easy to ignore.

Then I suddenly remembered my final human moments. "Are Victoria and Laurent gone? Where is Carlisle, Jasper, Alice, and Emmett? Did anyone get hurt? Where are we?" I asked my questions in one breath so quickly a human probably would not have understood me.

Edward chuckled at my sudden change. "Relax, everything is taken care of," he started in a soothing voice. "Victoria and Laurent have been burned down with that old barn." Then he added with an undertone, "Burning the barn wasn't even a problem because as I waited for you to wake up I could hear the family thinking about how they had been planning to destroy the old thing anyway, we actually did them a favor," he said with a smile.

"Carlisle went home after he was sure your change would be successful, so he could tell everyone what has happened. Emmett went with him." Edward's face became sarcastic, "Princess Rosalie was going to get angry if he stayed away from her for too long."

I smiled quickly, then realized he had not explained everything yet. I opened my mouth to ask another question, but Edward cut me off.

"Jasper and Alice are very nearby. After Jasper had calmed down they never left, because Jasper wanted to be close in case you needed his. . . help.

I knew what Edward meant by that, and wondered what they thought I would possibly do that would require Jasper's special ability to calm me down.

"They decided to leave us alone for when you woke up. Jasper thought it would help you get used to everything if there wasn't a bunch of people crowding around you," Edward continued. "Nobody has been hurt, except Victoria and Laurent of course, and we are about a six hour run away from home. Victoria took you quite a ways away," Edward finished, remembering my questions perfectly.

"Didn't my screaming worry anyone," I asked. I was pretty sure I had been yelling from the firey pain, or maybe I had just thought I was screaming. I had been so lost in the pain it was hard to tell.

"We were far enough away from people that they couldn't hear you with their poor hearing. That was why I had been listening to the thoughts of people within my range." There was a sad tone in his voice, and I wondered how hard it had been for him to listen to my screams of agony and not be able to do anything about it.

A brief break in the clouds interrupted my thoughts as I was bathed in a ray of sunlight. My skin began to sparkle at the same time as Edward's. I couldn't stop starring at my own perfectly healed glittering skin. Then as quickly as the sun had come it left again, leaving my skin pale and ghostly white.

"It's going to rain," Edward said. "You must be thirsty, and Jasper is surprised at how calm you are. We should probably hunt before all the animals take shelter from the rain and are harder to get."

For the first time since I woke up I looked at Edward's eyes and saw how dark they were. It must have been a while since he had last hunted. But as he said this I was reminded of my own thirst and I nodded and stood up.

"Let's run deep into the woods so we are very far from any people," Edward said. "Follow me."

Edward started running slowly, or maybe it only seemed slow to me now. Then he picked up the pace, and I was surprised at how easy it was for me to keep up. Trees were flying past me so fast that I knew if I were a human I would be getting sick right now. I felt a certain thrill as I ran, not too different from riding on a roller coaster, only it was better. I began to smell a different kind of scent, it didn't really smell good, but it was a bit appetizing because of the searing dry aching burn from my thirst. The smell made my mouth water with something different from saliva. Venom I guessed. My muscles tensed, and I felt excited, ready to charge towards the scent.

That was when Edward stopped. It took a little determination to make myself do the same, instead perusing the possibility to to help my thirst.

"Do you smell that?" he asked me.

I nodded, venom still flowing in my mouth, muscles still tense.

"Those are coyotes," he explained. "They are small, but taste better than deer. They will make a good first meal. You'll find you already know what to do, just let your instincts take over."

That was when I stopped resisting what I wanted to do. My legs flew underneath me, and I was running faster than before. I could hear Edward keeping up with me, staying quietly right behind me. As I was running the sky opened and the rain I had known would be coming poured down on us. It didn't make hunting any harder, I could still easily see and the smell was still strong.

I could see a small pack of coyotes just ahead, already trying to run from us. This only excited me more for some reason, and I easily jumped and landed on the closest one. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Edward land on the one closest to mine. After a small short struggle I was drinking. The blood wasn't as satisfing and it didn't taste as good as I had hoped, but it helped my thirst a little as I drank. As soon as his blood ran dry I found I still wanted more.

After we both had our fill of a couple more coyotes we decided it was time to head home. At the mention of home it finally hit me for the first time that the word "home" would probably be a completely different place from what I had been used to. I tried not to think about my parents too much, and instead focused on how this would mean I could stay with Edward forever. We would both stay frozen at seventeen together forever.

At first I had to follow Edward most of the way home, but as we got closer I began to smell a scent that was similar to Edward and even myself. The rain only diluted the scent a little. I could distinguish four different scents, probably Carlisle's, Esme's, Emmett's, and Rosalie's, since they had been here recently.

"Welcome home, Bella," Carlisle said with I smile as we entered my new home.

My new life, or what I should now call my new existence, was a little hard to get used to. One day I had been happily in my room getting ready for another day of summer and dreaming of becoming what I was now. But dreaming of becoming part of the living dead was different from actually becoming it, especially since I had not been prepared and it had happened so fast.

During the first week that I officially joined the Cullen family I had been on the news. It was very hard for me to watch. My teary father was describing my sudden and unexpected dissapearance. Then my mother appeared in an interview sitting next to Phil, as she talked about my personality. She described how smart, mature, and special I am. She just got finished explaining how she wasn't ever going to give up hope that I was still alive and she would find me before she broke into tears.

I had never had to endure such a hard thing in my life. I would have had tears running down my face the entire time I watched if that were possible for me. By the time the interviews were over I ran out of the house, crying tearless sobs. I didn't know how far I ran or how long. My legs never tired, my breath never became short.

Eventually I stopped in the middle of nowhere. I just needed to be alone and think. I would probably never be able to see my parents again. I didn't think I would be able to ever talk to them either, because my voice would sound so different. My only hope was to maybe write them a letter someday, in my hand writing, and let them know I was okay. They would just have to take my word for it and not get any real explanation of where I was, what happened, or why I couldn't come home. There didn't seem to be anything I could really effectively do to help with this blow.

I began to smell a familiar scent, and I heard fast running coming towards me. In seconds Edward had his arms wrapped around me, comforting me. His body now felt soft and warm against mine. We stayed like that for a while. Neither of us said anything, and I just stayed comfortably curled up in Edward's arms.

It wasn't until the sun had fully risen and we were both brilliantly sparkling that we decided to head home.

Even though the sudden permanent separation was hard to handle, I really was happy most of the time. I was able to be with Edward all the time, and now I wasn't in danger from him. He couldn't break me like a bubble and he didn't have the same danger of loosing control of himself. I spent every night with him, both of us in our own little world together.

I fit in with my vampire family very well. Even Rosalie was easy to get along with, now that I had become I vampire like her without planning to. We had both gone through very painful horrors to end up the way we were. I felt comfortable as a vampire, even more so than I had as a human.


	15. War?

**As I promised here is an epilouge, and it is extremely short. I'm happy to be done with this story. Thanks so much for people who reviewed, they really do mean a lot. **

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Epilogue War?

Alice, Edward, Emmett and I were having another contest. It was a kind of game we had made up as baseball practice, since I had obviously been able to joing in with the regular games whenever weather permitted. For this game one of us would hold the ball jump as high as possible and throw it as far as possible.

The other three would run to try to catch it first. Edward usually won to catch it first. I was able to throw it farthest and fastest though with my newborn vampire strength. Even Edward couldn't catch it before it went through a tree or hit the ground.

It was Emmett's turn to throw. He waited a second, then suddenly jumped and thre the ball hard, testing our reflexes. We were all speeding off in a second, faster than a gun shot. But after only a mile of running I heard Edward stop a few yards away. Alice and I were at his side as we heard the ball crash into the ground a few miles away.

I heard Edward swear under his breath.

"What is it?" I asked.

"We forgot about the treaty, I can hear their thoughts are so angry and they are coming. " he said angrily. "I'm not sure what is going to happen." He turned towards Alice, "can you see anything?"

Alice's face became shocked, "I can't see anything about the wolves at all. It's just an empty future in that direction right now. I don't know why I've become blind suddenly."

"This isn't good," Edward said anxiously, sounding worried for the first time. "There may be a war between us now."

I was getting confused. "What wolves, and what treaty are you talking about, and who is angry? Why are you saying there might be a war? This doesn't make any sense."

But before either of them could answer I heard a loud angry sound of several wolves howling in the distance.

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**I love to leave things hanging. My sister had come up with the thought about how the wolves would react, and I thought I had to try it in here. It's kinda my evil side making ending complicated and in unsettled.**


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